A US-Romania memorandum on 5G network security which was signed in August has been declassified and published on the Romanian Communications Ministry website. The move comes after the failure to organise a key 5G tender this year.
The publication of the document was announced by the interim minister of Communications Alexandru Petrescu in an answer to a blog post by a telecom analyst. It also came after the president of Romanian telecom market regulator ANCOM Sorin Grindeanu said the document was classified.
The media has insisted on the declassification of the document from the very beginning. The Memorandum was signed during a high profile visit of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to Washington, which included a meeting with US President Trump, in August this year.
While stopping short from publishing the document, officials have repeatedly said the document did not contain any reference to China, a country which is engaged in a trade clash with the US and has faced a ban of Huawei technologies.
The text as it was published on the ministry website does not say anything on avoiding security risks accompanying Chinese investments into 5G telecom networks, as it was pointed out in a joint US-Romanian presidential statement. The idea cn be read between the lines.
The Romanian and US governments say compliance was needed with rigorous criteria of evaluation on 5G technology provides, to check whether the provider is under control of another country's government, has a transparent ownership and has a history of ethical behaviour as a corporation.
On Thursday, ANCOM president Sorin Grindeanu has announced what many expected - the impossibility of organising a 5G tender this year. The procedure to sel radio frequencies for implementing the new technology has been postponed for the first half of 2020.
