Telekom is still one of the largest telecommunications groups in Romania, with over 10 million customers, a situation that will not change until the fixed services division is sold to Orange. Despite the fact that Telekom uses state-of-the-art technologies in most of its mobile infrastructure, in 2020 it decided not to invest in a 5G network until the Romanian Government clearly decides how this infrastructure will be developed in Romania.
Telekom made the best decision among all telecommunication operators, and this is because now the Romanian Government has indirectly decided what we have already seen in many other countries in the world, to block Huawei's 5G equipment. We are talking about an indirect decision because the Romanian Government passes the direct prohibition decisions to CSAT, but it is clear what will happen, and Telekom will be the only company unaffected by this situation when it comes to 5G networks.
Telekom: The Official Decision That Turned Out to be Very Important
Telekom did not build a 5G network with equipment from Huawei, as the other telecommunications operators did, so it will have nothing to replace after the Chinese equipment is banned. This should happen in the next period, and Orange, Vodafone, DIGI Mobil will have high costs with the replacement of Huawei equipment, while Telekom will start from scratch with equipment from manufacturers approved by the Romanian state.
Telekom makes huge savings thanks to this decision, while the rest of the telecommunications operators will have enough to pay to get rid of Huawei's current equipment in favor of new ones. No one knows for now how much everything would cost, especially since the 5G networks in Romania are not exactly large, but Telekom will invest in what is needed from the very beginning, avoiding loss of time and money, like the other operators.
Telekom has not yet shown its willingness to launch a 5G network in Romania, something that should not be surprising since the auction for 5G frequencies in the country has not yet been organized.
