Our focus
Across Europe and even around the Globe, Romania is well known for frequently placing in the top of the mobile internet speed.
SIM penetration in Romania is in line with regional averages, partly due to a significant number of customers opting to have multiple SIM cards. Along with mobile broadband usage is primed to grow as 2G and 3G becomes obsolete, replaced by the development for 5G and extended reach that significant network investment in 4G LTE services is bringing.
Mobile connectivity, IoT, cloud services and smartphones are becoming increasingly commonplace demands amongst both businesses and individuals in the market, with mobile internet traffic growing substantially between 2016 and 2021. A multi-band 5G auction has been scheduled for late 2022, which will be essential for ushering in the 5G era and meeting these growing demands in the process.
Our presence
Our tower portfolio in Romania is slightly weighted towards ground-based tower (GBT) sites. These are mainly located in rural areas with low population density, which are commonplace in a country separated by significant mountain ranges.
That said, a significant proportion of our portfolio is comprised of rooftop tower (RTT) sites, better suited to more built-up urban areas such as Bucharest, the capital city and financial/industrial center of the country, that is home to almost one-tenth of its population.
Our GBT sites have a higher tenancy ratio than our RTT sites, largely due to the network-sharing agreement between our top-tier customer Vodafone and Orange. The increasing demand for data in dense urban areas presents significant opportunities to grow our tenancies on GBT and RTT sites alike.
A message from our management in Romania
Local activities
100% green energy from renewable sources
Beginning in 2020, Vodafone Romania made a commitment to purchase 100% green energy for its operations from renewable sources, as part of the strategic objective to reduce its carbon footprint and environmental impact.
With the creation of Vantage Towers Romania, we have continued to honor and build on this commitment across our own operations and infrastructure. As we continue to increase the capacity and performance of our networks to handle growing data usage, we are faced with higher energy requirements. Therefore, energy-efficient operating is a priority and major objective for us, as we continue to deliver next-generation connectivity for Romania.
A market overview
Mobile networks
The Romanian market is served by four mobile network operators predominantly and we have ongoing partnerships with each, starting with our top-tier customer Vodafone, holding the second-highest SIM market share and competing with the leading MNO in terms of both speed and coverage.
Operators are continuing to expand 5G services gradually in Romania. In July 2021, Orange announced that it had expanded its 5G coverage to Craiova, the country’s sixth largest city. Like Orange, Vodafone and Digi Mobil launched commercial 5G services in 2019. While at the end of 2021 Telekom was yet to launch 5G, it announced in November the results of 5G tests using its current spectrum and 5G antennas deployed between Bucharest International Airport and the city center. The operator has also extended its rights to use the 2100 MHz band until the end of 2031.
Also, in November 2021, Digi Mobil made a relevant investment for additional spectrum to improve rural reach and add capacity. It acquired 2×5 MHz in the 800 MHz band suited for rural services, and four 2×5 MHz blocks in the 2600 MHz FDD band and one block of 15 MHz unpaired spectrum in the 2600 MHz TDD band both 2600 MHz bands are usually deployed in urban areas.
Non-MNOs
As technologies evolve, there is increasing demand for mobile infrastructure from non-MNO customers. For example, the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside more deep-seated environmental, geopolitical and technological changes, has seen countries such as Romania begin to allocate spectrum to public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) plans and initiatives. In Romania, 2x5MHz of 700MHz spectrum has been allocated for PPDR before 2021.
Privacy notice for landlords
Vantage Towers Romania has updated the Privacy Notice for landlords. You can find the revised Privacy Notice here.
Transforming the country
Romania is the largest producer of electronics in Central and Eastern Europe, it is also a major center for mobile technology and an international Hub for information security, IT and automotive production.
Each of these segments will increasingly rely on the benefits brought by next-generation mobile networks. Faster, higher-quality and more stable connectivity will not only change the way Romania’s companies do business and manufacture their goods, but fundamentally evolve the capabilities of the actual end-products.
Despite the energy crisis and the geopolitical context, latest readings of sentiment indicators point to a rather positive, albeit moderate, growth outlook, particularly in services, retail trade, construction and industry. Investment is expected to remain strong over the forecast horizon, supported by the Recovery and Resilience Facility and other EU Funds. The steep and continuous increase in energy prices pushed monthly HICP inflation, prices are set to rise further in 2022 due to high energy prices, and it pass-through into the prices of other goods and services. All this data would drive the market to efficiency and sustainability actions plans. In this context our business model of TowerCo, especially the Neutral Host Concept for indoor coverage projects (DAS) will become a desirable in the mobile infrastructure industry.
Agriculture is also a major contributor to Romania’s economy, and bringing the benefits of better connectivity to the sparsely populated communities working in this sector is a challenge that the mountainous country’s tower infrastructure is working to overcome in the coming years and decades.
Market office address
Vantage Towers Romania
AFI Park Offices, Building A, 3rd floor
Calea Floreasca 169A, 1st District,
Bucharest
Commercial registry no.: J40/4225/2020
Email: [email protected]