“Following an extensive analysis and several rounds of consultation with the industry, the terms of the auction will allow one or both operators – Orange and Vodafone, to get the entire spectrum they currently hold,” Marinescu said.
Orange, Vodafone and consultants involved in the case have said in the past few weeks that the initial variant of the tender documents put together by ANCOM would have forced the two operators to waste tens of millions of euros to install hundreds of new antennas just to keep the current standard of services. The change doesn’t affect the plans of other operators to obtain spectrum within this band, Marinescu added.
“At the same time, the terms of the auction will allow the operator that doesn’t hold spectrum in the 900-MHz band, RCS&RDS, or a newcomer, to obtain the spectrum resources they want. As is normal, all will depend on the participants’ decision to bid in the auction and each portion of spectrum will end up with the highest bidder. The important thing is that all will benefit from the same conditions in the auction process.”
The initial variant of the tender documents
Romania is putting up for sale mobile communications licenses for the 2014-2029 interval, but Orange and Vodafone, which will remain without a license at the end of 2012 for the 900-MHz band – through which they provide services to millions of clients – first have to fight to win a temporary license until April 2014.
ANCOM initially proposed that temporary licenses (until 2014) in the 900-MHz frequency band be shared out in blocks of 5 MHz, in which case Orange and Vodafone would be forced to buy either more or less spectrum than they are currently using (12.5 MHz). If they buy less spectrum, which means they would have 10 MHz instead of 12.5 MHz starting in 2013, the two operators would have to rearrange their radiofrequencies (through refarming) within a very short period (six months) at costs of tens of millions of euros. If they want to buy more spectrum to put off the refarming until April 2014, Orange and Vodafone could bid to get 3 blocks of 5 MHz each by 2014. But there are only 5 blocks, which means the auction system put together by ANCOM will lead to price increases every time Orange and Vodafone bid to win more blocks, with one of the companies eventually standing to lose.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)