Meanwhile, the Communications Ministry will prepare auction procedures to grant GSM licenses, added Vreme.
The matter was discussed in a Government meeting on Tuesday evening.
Telecom regulator ANCOM will announce its decision on GSM license extension in a news conference Wednesday. Last week, ANCOM postponed a decision on extending mobile telephony licenses, at the request of local operators.
Mobile operators called on ANCOM to put off until December 28 discussions on allowing them to use radio frequencies in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands, the telecom regulator said last week.
End-November, ANCOM put forward a draft decision proposing that mobile licenses of Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania be extended until April 2014, when the license of mobile operator Cosmote Romania in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands also expires.
The draft decision also states that, by December 31, 2012, Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania must make available a 2×5 MHz sub-band in the 900 MHz frequency spectrum.
GSM licenses for the 890-915 MHz and 935-960 MHz frequency bands were awarded at the end of 1996 to the companies that currently operate as Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania. They were valid for 15 years and expired on December 21, 2011.
Each of the two mobile operators paid $75 million for the GSM licenses.
Mobile licenses to use the 890-915 MHz, 935-960 MHz, 1710-1785 MHz and 1805-1880 MHz bands were granted at the end of 1998 to the company operating today as Cosmote Romania. The right to use these bands is valid for 15 years and expires on April 5, 2014.
The operator paid $53 million to use these bands.
Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania are leaders on the local mobile telephony market. Together they have about 20 million clients. They are followed by Cosmote Romania, with over 6 million clients.