Romanian operators Telekom, Vodafone Romania and Orange Romania warned local authorities that the recent government ordinance 114 will have a negative effect on the local telecom industry, according to a position paper forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies' IT&C Commission. Orange, Vodafone and Telekom sent the letter through the Romanian Mobile Operators' Association (AOMR), an organisation they formed. AOMR said the act will lead to the increase in fees, the introduction of a special category of fines and the setting of an unrealistic threshold for future radio spectrum auctions, according Telecompaper.
The document focuses on three issues. First, it mentions the unjustified increase of the monitoring tariff charged by Ancom to a fixed rate of 3 percent of operators' annual turnover compared to the rate maximum 0.4 percent applied previously. The second subject brought out by their letter is the disproportionate and discriminatory fine imposed on operators that carry out works without a building permit. This fine reaches up to 10 percent of their annual turnover. Last, the operators complained about the unsustainable increase in radio spectrum licensing fees in the future tenders for both the new 700MHz radio frequency specific for the development of 5G networks and the extension of existing radio frequencies in the 2,100MHz band. The document also proposes "remedies" for each of the measures introduced by government ordinance 114. In the case of the monitoring tariff, AOMR proposes the return to the 0.4 percent turnover tax, according Telecompaper.
