National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

The implementation, starting with November 6, of new licenses for the use of 800, 900 and 1800 MHz spectrum, recently granted to the three mobile providers, will start a new stage of development of the national radio communications sector and promote innovative mobile broadband services, which fact will facilitate the work and daily life of citizens. This was the message delivered by the Director of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), Grigore Varanita, during a press conference on Tuesday, Sept. 2, held at ANRCETI.

As stated by the director, by granting these licenses, ANRCETI sought to provide the spectrum resources to the radio communications sector necessary to ensure the development of broadband networks and to ensure continuity of GSM (2G) mobile voice service provision, thus creating favorable conditions for fair competition and increased benefits for users. ANRCETI consider that the licenses will result in the expansion of 4G networks, development of radio communications infrastructure in order to reduce the digital divide between urban and rural areas, implementation of innovative mobile broadband services and increased penetration rates nationwide.

ANRCETI Director mentioned that before the licenses were granted, the 900 and 1800 MHz spectrum was re-farmed and consolidated, in accordance with the requirements of EU acquis. Thus, the frequencies of these bands were re-partitioned into 5 MHz blocks, capable to accommodate both GSM systems (0.2 MHz GSM channel width) and mobile broadband systems (UMTS, HSPA, WiMAX LTE, which require at least 5 MHz channel width). This will launch, for the first time in Moldova, technological neutrality in mobile communication networks, which means that a provider will be able to choose from different technology/ies and apply them in the mentioned bands, without having to priorly obtain any permissive decisions. Technological neutrality allows the coexistence of GSM and HSPA (3G) in the 900 MHz band and GSM and LTE (4G) systems in 1800 MHz band. Under such conditions, providers will be able to schedule the technological migration according to their business plans and demand for services, said ANRCETI Director.

Another advantage is that the providers obtained a volume of spectrum larger that they currently have. This will allow them to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband services from a growing number of data (smartphones, tablets, etc.) users, demand for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services, etc. Grigore Varanita said that the use of these services will produce a 10 times increase of data traffic via mobile networks in the next five years.

ANRCETI Director said that the application of new licenses by providers will bring more benefits not only to consumers, but also to the whole society. Consumers will benefit from better mobile broadband coverage of territory, fewer "gray areas" and a higher level of service quality. The society on the whole will benefit from greater social inclusion, reduced digital divide between urban and rural areas and a wide range of broadband services expected to bring about more jobs and more taxes collected into the national budget, concluded Grigore Varanita.

In August, ANRCETI issued eight licenses for the right to use 800, 900 and 1800 MHz spectrum in the provision of public mobile networks and services to the three mobile providers - Orange Moldova, Moldcell and Moldtelecom. Orange Moldova and Moldcell received three licenses each (in all three bands) and Moldtelecom - two licenses (900 and 1800 MHz bands). All in all, the three providers paid for the licenses 62.5 million euro in MDL equivalent (over 1 billion lei).

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September 2, 2014