Romanian telecoms watchdog the National Authority for Management & Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has reached an agreement with the telecoms industry to modify the procedure for granting spectrum usage rights. The main changes agreed at the Advisory Council meeting on 18 August concern certain aspects relating to the regulation of the shared use of licensed frequency resources, the possibility to lease and transfer spectrum usage rights, and the simplification of the authorisation procedure for base stations forming part of public mobile and fixed electronic communications networks.
Shared use of spectrum will only be authorised in bands where no additional frequencies are available at the time of the request, on condition that competition is not restricted, impeded or distorted, ANCOM explained in a press release. Licensees will need to secure permission from ANCOM to share the spectrum, based on a written agreement between the two parties, with each licensee required to fulfil the individual coverage and/or rollout obligations included in their permits, while taking all necessary measures to avoid harmful interference to legally authorised electronic communications networks.
In the case of leasing or assigning spectrum user rights secured following payment of a licence fee, the regulator can only approve the transfer request after determining it will not impede competition or prevent the market from functioning normally. In order to simplify authorisation procedures, licensed operators of public mobile and fixed electronic communications networks will be required to provide ANCOM with a monthly update regarding the current frequency allocations for each of their base stations, as well as the technical and operational parameters.