Vodafone was fined RON 720,000, Orange was fined RON 120,000 and Telekom was fined RON 60,000 by the referee on the telecom market (ANCOM) for failure to meet the task of covering the signal in dozens of rural villages, obligations assumed in the tender of 2012, the authority has announced on Monday. Vodafone and Orange had the obligation to cover each 225 rural localities, Cosmote to cover 169 localities, RCS & RDS 57 rural localities until April 5, 2016. Of these, only RCS & RDS has complied with the obligations, hotnews.ro reports.
Starting on April 6, 2016, ANCOM has conducted a campaign to check how the operators have fulfilled the obligation of coverage with mobile network with UMTS technology, within the IMT improved family (HSPA, HSPA+) or LTE or equivalent, of the rural localities specified in the licenses they received.
After the ANCOM checks, it was found that Vodafone Romania has failed to meet the obligations to cover 72 localities according to the obtained license. Vodafone was thus fined RON 720,000.
Orange Romania failed to meet the obligations in 12 localities and was fined RON 120,000.
Telekom Romania Mobile Communications has not met its obligation to cover six localities and was fined RON 60,000.
The three communications providers will have to pay the fines to the state budget and to fulfil their obligations stipulated in the licenses.