BEREC Opinion on the Phase II Case RO/2026/2623

On 5 January 2026, the European Commission registered a notification from the Autoritatea Naţională pentru Administrare şi Reglementare în Comunicaţii (ANCOM), concerning the Romanian market for wholesale local access provided at a fixed location.

The draft market analysis notified by ANCOM concerns the wholesale local access market for fixed locations in Romania. Since 2015, this market was found to be competitive and consequently not subject to ex ante regulation.

On 4 February 2026, the Commission sent a serious doubts letter opening a phase II investigation pursuant to Article 32 of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). The Commission has serious doubts about the compatibility of ANCOM’s proposed wholesale regulation of the Romanian wholesale local access market with EU law, particularly the objectives of promoting investment, innovation, and the internal market.

Under the current notification, ANCOM defines 4 separate geographic markets (A1, A2, B1 and B2) and finds that the market for wholesale local access provided at a fixed location in Romania in Market A1 can no longer be considered competitive, in a forward-looking analysis. ANCOM therefore proposes to impose ex ante regulation on the operator DIGI Romania S.A (hereinafter: DIGI).

The Romanian market is characterized by low prices and high quality of service and costs of deployment are relatively low, due to effective access to available physical infrastructure. DIGI has deployed fibre almost ubiquitously in Romania as an alternative operator and has overtaken the incumbent operator. Specifically in the Market A1, this operator enjoys a market share of 97%.

On the basis of the economic and legal analysis set out in this Opinion, BEREC considers that the European Commission’s serious doubts are not justified.