Acting CommMin Petrescu: Once 5G technology is adopted, Romania will enter unprecedented era of communications

Once the 5G technology is adopted next year, Romania will enter an unprecedented era of communications, acting minister of Communications and Information Society Alexandru Petrescu told a specialist conference on Tuesday. 

"With the adoption of 5G technologies, we will step as of next year in an era of unprecedented communications. We will witness a revolution of the communications system and the mapping offered by the National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority - ANCOM will become a tool without which we will no longer be able to relate to everything that means growth and development of the country's economic system. The current operational mapping of Romania's broadband services has precedents in Austria, Germany and Poland and contains detailed data on the geographical presence down to household level and will be extremely helpful in attracting European funding for infrastructure, for enhancing the level of digital connectivity both through the Connect Europe program which has 3 billion euros allocated for the 2021-2027 programming period, and through the 'Competitiveness' Operational Programme which is being negotiated right now, during the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU, with representatives of the European Commission and of the Ministry of Communications and Information Society," said Petrescu. 

He went on to say that 4G coverage in Romania is 77 percent, yet below the European average of 94 percent. 

"Romania still faces significant digital challenges in the rural area, where less than 40 percent of the territory is covered by broadband services and, at the same time, we are witnessing a sped up replacement of fixed-line with mobile connections and an annual doubling of data traffic; such developments are significantly encouraged by the decrease of prices to an average of 10 euros in Romania, compared to 22 euros the EU average. We are also making progress with 4G coverage, which is 77 percent in Romania, below the EU average of 94 percent. I am confident that with the materialization of the highly ambitious legislative project launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society together with the industry and institutions with responsibilities in the field, aimed at simplifying the authorization of electronic communications infrastructure, we will be in a much better position for covering communications services in Romania and we will be able to support the appetite of the investors in the Romanian communications market through a predictable and encouraging operational framework that, in fact, comes forth to 5G communications," said Petrescu. 

The National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority organized on Tuesday the annual international conference on the mapping in 2019 of the coverage by electronic communication services. 

During the event, the regulator of the local telecom market officially launched the aisemnal.ro application, a one-off tool that allows Romanians to check the areas where they have a mobile signal and the operators with the best signal. The new application is free and can be directly accessed on the website www.aisemnal.ro. 

According to ANCOM data, the portal is not based on simulations, does not contain information transmitted by third parties, and the values provided are not obtained under lab conditions. 

The users must access www.aisemnal.ro, select the operator and technology they are interested in (2G, 3G or 4G). Measurements to populate the map were made between May - August 2019 in over 13,000 Romanian localities and 240,000 km of national and county roads were covered.