The largest spectrum auction to ever take place in Romania is set to start in September, and five companies including Orange and Vodafone have now submitted bids to participate, according to Romanian news reports. If successful, €700 million could be raised based on the starting prices of the spectrum licences.
Frequencies in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands will be up for grabs. In addition to Orange, Vodafone, Cosmote and RCS & RDS, which all currently provide mobile services in the country, ISP 2K Telecom, part of the Asesoft group, has also submitted a bid according to Romania-Insider.com, citing a report on the Romanian Mediafax newswire.
The deadline for the submission of bids was Aug. 13, and the primary rounds of the auction are set to go ahead on Sept. 10 if the demand exceeds the offer. Romania's communications authority Ancom will announce the final line-up of auction participants on Aug. 20.
Two types of licences will be awarded under the auction: long-term licences (15 years, valid until April 2029) and short-term licences (15 months, valid until April 2014).
The government has already set the starting prices for the licences: blocks valid for 15 years in the 800 MHz band will have a minimum price of €35 million; those in the 900 MHz band start at €40 million; blocks in the 1800 MHz band will be €10 million; and €4 million and €3 million are the minimum prices per paired block and unpaired block respectively in the 2.6 GHz band.
For short-term licences, starting values were set at €1.7 million for the 900 MHz band and €0.8 million for the 1800 MHz band.
The winners could be announced in October, depending on the number of bidding rounds.
For more:
- see this Romania-Insider.com article
- see this Telecompaper article
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