In the early 2000s, using mobile telephony in Romania was a very expensive exercise.

This might come as a surprise for all the millennials and Gen Zs out there who grew up in the age of “everything unlimited” in telecom services.

Indeed, if I recall correctly, in the late ’90s and early 2000s, mobile subscriptions were expensive, and they included very few minutes (10–30). The calls outside the bundle could cost as much as 1 USD per minute, VAT included.

But here’s a funny fact: in the early days, the mobile operators only started charging from the third second of a call. Romanian users quickly became black-belt masters of the two-second conversation.

How did it work? Simple: you initiated the call, and as soon as the other picked up, you’d cram in as many words as humanly possible into two seconds and then hang up. Then the other person would call back and do the same. It went something like this:

 “Whereareyou?”

“Intheparkinglot.”

“Icomeinfive.”

“Imwaiting.”

Some people even argued using this method. It was hilarious while it lasted – until the operators caught on and switched to charging from the very first nanosecond. And just like that, the fun was gone!

Two decades later, Romanian consumers no longer whisper in two-second bursts. On the contrary, we’ve become some of the most spoiled telecom users in Europe – enjoying exceptional accessibility, affordability, and broadband speed! [For my fellow citizens who may be skeptical about this, I have a list of destinations you could travel to and convince yourselves.]

But these good days may be numbered.

The balance between price, quality, and competition is once again under pressure.

This brings me to the subject matter of the day: the competition concerns raised by the Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”) regarding the planned consolidation of the Romanian telecom market.

From four to three: consolidation in the Romanian telecom sector

In a transaction that could reshape the Romanian telecom market, Vodafone Romania intends to acquire Telekom Romania Mobile Communications S.A., while Digi Romania plans to take over a distinct set of assets from the same target — including mobile infrastructure, spectrum rights, and the prepaid customer base. Though structured as two separate deals, the combined effect would be a consolidation from four to three players in key mobile services markets.

Who’s who in this transaction?

  • Vodafone Romania and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications are the local subsidiaries of their respective international groups.
  • Digi Romania is part of Digi Communications N.V., a Romanian-founded telecom group listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Over the past decade, Digi has acted as a price challenger on the Romanian market, contributing to increased competitive pressure across both mobile and fixed services. The group has recently expanded its presence in other EU markets, including Spain, Portugal, and Belgium.
  • The fourth mobile network operator on the Romanian market – Orange Romania – is not involved in these transactions.

What’s at stake: the RCC’s list of competition concerns

The RCC has identified the following key competition concerns:

1.    potential degradation in the quality of mobile internet services, particularly in terms of average download speeds,

2.    the risk of underutilization of radio spectrum by the acquirers,

3.    possible restrictions to infrastructure access for Orange Romania, especially regarding mobile site colocation,

4.    weakening of competition on the wholesale market for call origination and access, potentially harming MVNOs,

5.    concerns over the continuity and quality of prepaid services for customers migrated from Telekom to Digi,

6.    potential price deterioration for post-paid individual customers taken over by Vodafone,

7.    risks related to pricing conditions for machine-to-machine (M2M) services currently provided by Telekom,

8.    potential deterioration of contractual terms for third-party hosted services, RCC even naming a Romanian company (Veridian Systems) as potentially affected,

The RCC invited interested parties to submit their comments on the identified concerns.

What’s next? A narrow window of opportunity and a lesson from the Mega–Profi case

The concerns are clear. The question is: will the remedies be just as clear – and effective? That depends on the parties and, of course, on the RCC. But not only!

If we look at the RCC’s past antitrust sanctioning decisions in the telecom sector, most focused on B2B segments, where the consumer protection authority plays no role and the transgressions by the mobile operators are more difficult to detect. Precisely because of this, it’s crucial for players potentially affected by the consolidation under review – especially those in the B2B space, but not only — to respond to the RCC’s invitation and submit their views.

I sincerely hope those affected will speak up now – not later!

We’ve seen this before. In another major recent market consolidation — the Mega–Profi case in food retail – RCC spent months and months asking – almost begging, at some point – for market feedback. But real mobilization from those affected by the merger came only after the commitments were already published, and many found them… let’s say, questionable.

By then, it was too late. The assessment had dragged on too long, and any critical observations submitted at that stage likely lacked the impact needed to reshape the remedies in a meaningful way.

This was a missed opportunity — not because the RCC didn’t ask for input, but because most didn’t respond when it mattered. Many chose to play the wait-and-see game. Did they win anything out of this? I doubt!

The law allows remedies. But it also allows Phase 2 investigations and … prohibition decisions.

Coming back to the case at hand: by the letter of the law, in merger control, it is the parties’ right to propose the remedies they are comfortable assuming. The RCC has reminded the parties of their option to offer remedies to address the identified concerns. If Vodafone and Digi come up with remedies, which are deemed sufficient, RCC may clear the transactions.

RCC might feel encouraged in this direction by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which recently approved with behavioral remedies a 4-to-3 consolidation in telecom in the controversial Vodafone/Three case.

Unfortunately, it’s still too early to judge the outcome in the UK, and we don’t yet know whether the accepted remedies will actually deliver. [Maybe some of our readers from the UK could share their post-merger customer’s experience!]

In the Romanian case, if the (potential) remedies are not good enough, it is also the RCC’s right — some might even say duty — to open Phase 2 investigations and, if needed, to block the transactions.

Luckily, I’m not the one responsible for clearing this deal or crafting the commitments! But as someone who’s been watching this space closely, I do believe it’s worth raising a flag and speak up, and – why not? – reminding others that now is the time to act – not later!

Meanwhile, in its own statement, the RCC underlined that “it is essential that, following these transactions, the quality of services offered to consumers does not decrease, but rather improve.” That’s definitely a result worth pursuing. But, as numerous past examples have shown, competition is not one of those rare fields where “less is more”.

Quite the opposite: in merger control, the math is much simpler – Three is less than four. And less is less.

As for Romanian consumers, what can I say?

„Totulvafibine” (everythingwillbeok)

„Nuvaingrijorati” (don’tworry)

„Preturilenuvorcreste” (priceswon’tgoup)

„Pastramlegatura” (we’llkeepintouch)

You can’t really say these things in English in under two seconds, but somehow we used to manage doing it in Romanian. Let’s hope we don’t go back to that!

Disclaimer: This article reflects solely my personal and professional opinion on the matter. No instructions or input were received from any third parties, and the content was not submitted to anyone for review prior to publication.