Telekom Romania fined by ANCOM with RON 500m. Orange and Vodafone receive warnings

Telekom Romania Mobile Communications has been fined by the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) with RON 500 million, a release issued by the institution reads.

“During January-July 2018, ANCOM conducted a wide campaign to measure the national coverage of voice services, which carried out measurements in 12,786 localities with 19.8 million inhabitants, out of the 20.1 million. The ANCOM campaign aimed at verifying to what degree the mobile telephony operators meet the obligation to cover the voice services on inhabited areas to at least 98% of Romania’s population, obligation assumed under the licenses. The results are as follows: Orange Romania – 97.56% of the population, Telekom Romania Mobile Communications – 96.8% and Vodafone Romania – 97.8% of the population. As none of the telephony operators has reached the level set by license and considering the degree of meeting the obligation, ANCOM has sanctioned Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania with warnings and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications with a fine of RON 500,000,” ANCOM President, Sorin Grindeanu, said.

ANCOM says the obligation is to cover the voice services to at least 98% of the Romanian population, by own radio network, until April 5, 2017, an obligation included in the operating licenses of the three operators having already the 2G or 3G networks in the frequencies of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz when the auction took place in 2012.

For the operators having 3G networks in the 2100 MHz frequency, as in the case of RCS&RDS, the obligation is similar, but the deadline is April 5, 2019.