Starting next year, Vodafone Romania will provide 4G services at speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
Vodafone Romania CEO Inaki Berroeta, Communications Minister Dan Nica and UK group Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao were present at the launch.
The 4G network has been built in a few months, Berroeta said. He added that the mobile operator will invest EUR100 million next year in developing the network, which will be extended gradually.
Vodafone’s LTE network operates in the 1,800 MHz frequency band and has been implemented with Huawei equipments. Romania is one of the first European markets where Vodafone launches LTE, after Germany and Portugal.
Following an auction ended on September 24, telecom operators Cosmote, Orange, RCS&RDS, Vodafone and 2K Telecom will pay EUR682.14 million for mobile telephony licenses in frequency bands 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.800 MHz and 2.600 MHz. Vodafone Romania will pay EUR228.52 million, Orange Romania will pay EUR227.14 million, Cosmote Romania will pay EUR179.88 million, RCS&RDS will pay EUR40 million and 2K Telecom will pay EUR6.6 million.
Vodafone Romania is the second largest mobile operator in Romania regarding number of clients and sales.
At the end of June, the company had 7.79 million clients, down from 7.94 million at the end of March.