Orange, Vodafone and quad-player RCS & RDS were among the biggest spenders in Romania’s re-auction of 3.4 GHz and 3.8 GHz licences, which concluded this week, raising €10.1 million.
2K Telecom and state-owned broadcaster Radiocom also picked up spectrum during the auction, which raised less than the Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) had in mind.
Orange spent the most, bidding €3.9 million for five 2×5 MHz blocks of 3.4 GHz spectrum and nine unpaired 5 MHz blocks of 3.8 GHz spectrum.
RCS & RDS snapped up 10 lots of 3.8 GHz spectrum for €1.9 million, while Vodafone won four blocks of 3.4 GHz spectrum for €1.7 million.
Radiocom lodged bids totalling €1.9 million and was awarded 10 blocks of 3.8 GHz frequencies, while 2K Telecom won a more modest two block s of paired 3.4 GHz spectrum for €740,100.
"The licence fees, reaching a total of €10,124,101, are to be paid by 2 December 2015, and the new rights of use of the radio spectrum will enter into force on 1 January 2016, for a 10-year period," said ANCOM, in a statement on Tuesday.
The sum raised is below the €12.8 million reserve proposed by ANCOM in July because some frequencies were left on the shelf.
255 MHz of spectrum was assigned in total, comprised of 11 lots of 2×5 MHz blocks of spectrum in the 3.4 GHz-3.6 GHz band, and 29 lots of unpaired 5 MHz blocks of spectrum in the 3.6 GHz-3.8 GHz band. Five lots of paired spectrum and seven lots of unpaired spectrum did not attract bidders.
