5G auction in 4-5 months if Communications Code clears Parliament in December

The Communications Code is currently with the Chamber of Deputies and will reach the Senate, and if it clears Parliament in December, a 5G auction will be organised in 4-5 months, at the latest, which will open data transfers even wider and will also help virtual education, said on Wednesday Chairman of the National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority (ANCOM) Vlad Stoica.

"The Communications Code is now with the Chamber of Deputies; it has received some opinions, and next week I hope it will clear the IT&C Committee, the rapporteur committee, after which it will be voted on at a plenary meeting of the Chamber of Deputies and sent to the Senate. I hope to have it promulgated as soon as possible, by the end of the year. (...) After the passage of the code, we start the 5G auction. If the code clears Parliament in December, in 4-5 months at most we organise the 5G auction, which, of course, will open data transfer even wider and also help us to have an easier life with online schooling and everything we need," Stoica told the ZF Digital Summit '21 event.

According to him, the Communications Code is important because it transposes in the Romanian legislation the European Union Directive on communications and will simplify the authorisation procedures in the communications area. It will also be possible to grant licences for a longer period to operators, which means predictability and the possibility for them to make accurate forecasts from a financial and economic point of view.

He mentioned that the telecom market in Romania is a mature market with fair competition which makes its services be very good even at the level of the European Union with affordable prices, even low ones, and with quite good coverage.

"Definitely, there are still things to be done, but the services have been provided correctly and well. ANCOM is constantly measuring the quality of both the voice services we use and the quality of the internet. Definitely, it can be much better and, together with the other public authorities, we need to find solutions to cover more virtual schooling," added Stoica.