Connectivity — Romania
What travelers need to know about connectivity in Romania. What is legal at home can be a serious crime here — each rule links to its official source.
Connectivity in Romania: prohibited — what is legal at home can be a serious crime here.
Leave any signal jammer at home - in Romania, POSSESSING one is itself the offence. ANCOM, the telecoms regulator, prohibits manufacturing, importing, possessing, advertising, placing on the market, making available, switching on and using any radio device designed to cause harmful interference, including mobile-phone and GPS jammers. You do not have to switch it on to be caught; having it counts. Then check your walkie-talkies: US FRS/GMRS frequencies (462/467 MHz) appear nowhere on Romania's licence-exempt list, so they have no exemption to rely on, while European PMR446 sets do. ANCOM ran a national enforcement campaign on walkie-talkies and wireless mics in summer 2025, so this is actively policed.
No fine figure for the jammer contravention is published here. ANCOM's readable penalty page states that where non-conforming equipment causing harmful interference continues to be used, ANCOM may fine USERS "amenzi contraventionale ... cu valori cuprinse intre 500 si 5.000 lei" - but that page addresses non-conforming radio equipment generally, and that figure is deliberately NOT imported onto the jammer offence at art. 51(2) pt. 21 + art. 53(1) of HG 740/2016, which could not be read in official text this run. Widely circulated media figures of 5,000-10,000 lei are not official and are not used. For context only, ANCOM reported roughly 1.6 million lei in fines across more than 700 inspections of non-conforming radio equipment (press release, 26 June 2025). Historic enforcement: ministerial orders 886/2010 and 953/2010 withdrew GSM/3G jammers from the Romanian market and ANCOM forced sale listings off 15 named Romanian sites.
§ ANCOM (Autoritatea Nationala pentru Administrare si Reglementare in Comunicatii) - "Jammere (aparate de bruiaj)", page modified 12 February 2026, with the English mirror at ancom.ro/en/reglementare-ro-en/equipment/radio-equipment/jammers/ (modified 10 February 2026). Instrument: Hotararea Guvernului nr. 740/2016 privind punerea la dispozitie pe piata a echipamentelor radio (transposing Directive 2014/53/EU), consolidated to 30 November 2025 per ANCOM's legislation index, amended by HG 431/2019, HG 931/2023 and HG 908/2025. Bands read from Decizia presedintelui ANCOM nr. 311/2016 privind frecventele radio exceptate de la regimul de licentiere, consolidated text of 5 February 2025 (originally M.Of. 228/28.03.2016). Penalties from ANCOM "Sanctiuni aplicabile". Prepaid SIM from the Curtea Constitutionala a Romaniei press release of 18 February 2020 (ccr.ro), corroborated by Avocatul Poporului's 2019 unconstitutionality-objection register. UK FCDO Romania (still current at 9 September 2026) says nothing on jammers, SIMs, radios, satellite phones or VPNs; travel.state.gov Romania was behind a Cloudflare challenge and was not read.Verified Sep 9, 2026