RomTelecom versus SNR

RomTelecom claims that the National Radiocommunications Company (SNR) may not use its voice transmission system for commercial purposes, although it planned to launch it at the end of the month, RomTelecom General Manager Vassilios Tsakoniatis said.

“Under the privatisation contract we signed with the Romanian state in 1998, RomTelecom holds exclusivity on the voice transmission in Romania by the market’s liberalisation in 2003,” Tsakoniatis said. “They may only use it to test the system, but they are not allowed to use it for commercial purposes.”

Last week, SNR announced at CERF 2001 that it will launch a pilot-project through which any Bucharest inhabitant may require the installation of broad-band radio equipment, which allows voice, data and video transmission. Though it is a pilot project, the Communications and IT Ministry stated that SNR already holds a licence granted by the former National Communications and IT Agency (ANCI).

RomTelecom General Manager says that, if it does happen this way, RomTelecom will not sue SNR, but will try to solve the dispute in an amiable way.

“I must remind you that RomTelecom had to deal with a similar situation when the 1800 MHz frequency was disputed, and we solved it amiably,” Tsakoniatis told Ziarul Financiar.

Last year, RomTelecom contested in a lawsuit the claims of the two mobile phone operators MobiFon/Connex and MobilRom/Dialog to use the 1,800 Mhz licence, currently held by RomTelecom’s Cosmorom, arguing that it had exclusivity over this frequency.

The national telecoms operator asked ANCI to pay 140 million dollars in image damages and 100,000 for each day when the court ruling was breached. At the beginning of the year, MCTI met with representatives of the three operators and settled the dispute, signing two protocols.