In the second day of primary rounds, demand no longer exceeded the offer.
The telecom regulatory authority (ANCOM) will hold on Friday an additional round of auctioning for the frequencies still available, after Tuesday, during the second day of primary rounds, demand no longer exceeded the offer in none of the bands put to auction, the institution announced. Two primary rounds were held during the first day of the auction (Monday). ANCOM decided to continue the primary rounds Tuesday, after it found out that demand exceeded offer in at least one category. All bidders may attend the supplementary rounds, no matter if they obtained or not frequency blocks during primary rounds.In any of these rounds, each bidder may submit an offer in which it will indicate one or several packages, consisting of one or several blocks of frequencies still available, along with the sum it is willing to pay for such a package. Following the additional rounds, ANCOM will decide the winning offers for the frequency blocks that remained available after the primary rounds, the winning bidders and the base prices they must pay. The auction will end with an allocation round, in which operators may bid for the place they want in the band.The operators that attend the auction are 2K Telecom, Cosmote Romania, Orange Romania, RCS&RDS and Vodafone Romania. ANCOM has put to auction the rights of using frequencies in the bands of 800, 900, 1,800 and 2,600 MHz in view of providing mobile communication services – voice and data – for a 15-year interval. This is the first time when spectrum licenses are awarded through a competitive selection procedure in Romania.The starting price for each block of the four bands was set by Government decision. Each block allotted for 15 years in the 800 MHz band will have a minimum price of EUR 35 M, those in the 900 MHz band will cost EUR 40 M, respectively EUR 10 M per block in the band of 1,800 MHz and EUR 4 M per even block and EUR 3 M per odd block in the band of 2,600 MHz. For the blocks that will be allotted for 15-month intervals, prices were set at EUR 1.7 M in the 900 MHz band and EUR 800,000 in the 1,800 MHz band. Calculated at the starting price of licenses the total value of the auction exceeds EUR 700 M.
