Preliminary assessment of the third payment request of Romania (2024)

Given that Government Decision No. 1139/2022 entered into force on 14 September 2022, the requirement in the description of the milestone according to which the recommendation must be finalised in 2022 is fulfiled.

25 – Timely availability of 5G harmonised bands

Recommendation 25 of the EU Connectivity Toolbox calls for Member States to make a substantial part of the 5G harmonised bands (700 MHz 3.6 GHz and 26 GHz) available for wireless broadband networks as soon as possible.

The roadmap (document iii) required ANCOM to ensure that the harmonised frequency bands would be made available in two stages by organising two distinct selection procedures, one to award the available spectrum in bands where frequency resources were not fully used (indicating that the 800 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz frequency bands had available spectrum), for a shorter period, and another selection procedure, to award frequency usage rights in the bands newly harmonized for 5G at European level, for longer periods, in accordance with the provisions of the draft law for transposing into national legislation the European Electronic Communications Code.

The first selection procedure to award usage rights for spectrum resources available in the 800 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz bands was launched on 11 October 2021 and the results from the auction were communicated on 22 November 2021 (document vi). The results of the selection procedure indicate that two bids were awarded and that usage rights were awarded till 2029 and 2025 respectively.

The notice for the organisation of the second selection procedure to grant rights of use for radio frequencies in the 700 MHz, 1500 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3400-3800 MHz bands (the “5G” radio frequencies) was published on 19 September 2022 on ANCOM’s website (document vii). The results of the auction were published on 15 November 2022 (document viii). According to the auction results, the rights in the 700 MHz and 1500 MHz bands are granted for 25 years from 1 January 2023. The rights in the 3400-3800 MHz band are granted for 22 years from 1 January 2026. The rights in the 2600 MHz band are granted from 1 January 2023 to 5 April 2029. As required by the roadmap, the 5G harmonised bands are therefore awarded for a longer time period.

Romania finalised this recommendation on 22 November 2021, with the publication of the results from the auction, in line with the requirement in the milestone description that all recommendations shall be finalised in 2022 and the text in the milestone description indicating that this recommendation is expected to be finalised by 2022.

28 – Individual authorisation regime for the 24,25-27,5GHz frequency band

Recommendation 28 of the EU Connectivity Toolbox encourages Member States to promote the flexible authorisation of the 26 GHz band, with a focus on local licensing and infrastructure sharing. As indicated in the Toolbox, the 26 GHz band contains a spectrum of 3, 250 MHz ranging from 24.25 to 27.5GHz (see document 2, page 33).

The roadmap (document iii) required ANCOM to organise a public consultation to assess the interest in the 26 GHz band and options for the optimal use of spectrum in this band by end 2021, with a view to assessing whether this band should be included in the selection procedure to be organised in 2022.