Orange, Vodafone and Telekom hit with RON 900,000 in fines for failing to provide coverage

Newsroom 25/07/2016 | 23:28

The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM) has fined Orange, Vodafone and Telekom for failing to provide coverage in several rural areas. The fines total RON 900,000, with the biggest fine, of RON 720,000, being imposed on Vodafone.

ANCOM has issued the fines for “failing coverage duties provided in the licenses to use the spectrum of radio frequencies acquired following the selection procedure organized in 2012,” Cristin Popa, ANCOM executive director said in a press statement.

As part of the tender for the spectrum auction conducted in 2012, the Authority imposed on operators that acquired the rights of use for the radio frequencies in the bandwidth below 1 GHz (800 MHz and/or MHz), namely Cosmote, Orange, RCS&RDS and Vodafone, the obligation to cover each a certain number of the 676 localities not yet provided with mobile broadband communication network proportionally with the spectrum resources awarded.

Accordingly, Vodafone and Orange had the obligation to cover 225 rural localities each, Cosmote had 169 and RCS&RDS 57, respectively. The deadline for the operators to cover the localities was 5 April 2016.

According to ANCOM, the regulatory body conducted a campaign to check the way in which the operators fulfilled their obligations to cover with mobile broadband networks in UMTS technology, Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS) such as HSPA, HSPA+ or LTE or their equivalent the localities mentioned in the licenses acquired.

ANCOM searches have uncovered the fact that Vodafone Romania has not fulfilled its obligations to cover 72 localities out of those included in the license. The company was fined RON 720,000 . Orange Romania received a RON 120,000 fine for failing to provide coverage to 12 localities and Telekom Romania Mobile was fined RON 60,000 for failing to fulfill its contractual obligations in 6 localities.

The three providers are required to pay the equivalent of the fines towards the state budget and to fulfill the coverage obligations provided on the licenses to use the radio frequency spectrum, ANCOM informed.

Georgeta Gheorghe

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