Two New 3G Licenses for Romania

Romania's telecoms regulator, IGCTI says that it has awarded the country's remaining two 3G concessions to cable operator RCS&RDS and CDMA450 operator, Telemobil - trading as Zapp. The two companies obtained the best scores after the evaluation according to the task book criteria. RCS&RDS gained 90.41 points and Telemobil SA 72.71 points. Cosmote Mobile obtained 59.74 points and Radiocom 49.58.

"In the evaluation process the commission the task book criteria. It was a transparent process which involved professionals named by the Prime Minister Chancellery, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, IGCTI and the National Regulatory Authority for Communications", said Catalin Marinescu, IGCTI president. The specialists come from legal, technical and financial areas.

The evaluation process started in June when IGCTI launched the task book for public consultation. Six proposals helped improving the task book. The most important task book criterion was geographical and population coverage (55 points) followed by technical feasibility (25 points) and financial capacity (10 points). The commercial feasibility, specialization and experience receive five points each.

The operators bids include their commitments regarding the population and the national roads coverage, services quality and number, data on launching, financial capability and commercial launching.

"The winners are to be awarded only after the first rate of 10.5 million dollars is paid in 120 days starting today", said Marinescu.

The next annual rates on amount of US$4.9 million each are to be paid every year till January 30, beginning with 2007. One 3G license is worth US$35 million.

"If one of the licenses can not be awarded to the winner, from one reason or another, the next placed is to be awarded", added Marinescu.

The first 3G licenses owners in Romania are Vodafone and Orange. Vodafone Romania announced in September more than 230,000 3G services users. Orange Romania estimates 250,000 EDGE and 3G users by year-end."

Posted to the site on 18th October 2006