Romania's villages without fast fixed internet: 1,592 places on the 2025 list, almost the same ones three years running

Who is still on the list: the villages with no fixed network#

In 2021 ANCOM sorted all 13,755 places in Romania by the best fixed connection on offer to households. 2,222 had no fixed network at all: no copper, no fibre, no fixed radio.

Of the 1,592 places on the 2025 list, 1,256 are villages that had no fixed network in 2021. Another 281 had only connections under 30 Mbps. Just 16 had 30 to 100 Mbps. Of the 2,222 places with no fixed network in 2021, 57% are still on the list in 2025. Of the 1,522 that had 30–100 Mbps then, only 16 are still listed.

For at least 438 villages on the 2025 list, data gathered in 2023 in the public consultation for the EU-funded programme showed neither a fixed network nor 4G coverage. The figure covers only the 1,303 listed villages that were eligible for the programme; there are no 4G data for the other 289.

The list has barely moved since 2023#

A 2022 law (Law 175/2022) requires ANCOM to publish every year the list of places where private households cannot get fixed internet of at least 100 Mbps. The lists had 1,635 places (2023), 1,624 (2024) and 1,592 (2025).

The total falls slowly, but the membership churns: between 2023 and 2025, 228 places left the list and 185 joined it. Of those that joined, 39 had been classed at 100 Mbps or more in 2021. The lists rest on what operators report and are not checked on the ground, so part of the churn is reporting.

The 2025 list uses data from May 2025, two months after the EU-funded contracts were signed. The 2026 list, from data operators had to report between 1 May and 30 June 2026, is the first that can show their effect. It had not been published by 1 November 2026.

What summer 2026 speed tests show#

Without the official 2026 list, one independent clue comes from speed tests people run with the Ookla Speedtest app, published every quarter on squares about 400 metres across at Romania's latitude. For each village, the squares within 1 km were taken; a "fast signal" means a square averaging at least 250 Mbps with at least three tests. The bar sits above typical satellite internet speeds.

The method and the reading rule were fixed before the data were opened, and checked on villages whose status is known; the comparison with villages that left the list, and the estimate below, were added after the data were opened. In July–September 2026 the signal shows up in 23.7% of villages with fast internet since 2021 that were never listed, and in 1.7% of villages with no network in 2021 that were on all three lists.

In the EU-eligible villages still on the 2025 list, the signal rose from 0.8% (April–June 2025) to 2.0% (July–September 2026), that is 26 villages out of 1,299 with a known position. In listed villages that were not eligible it rose more, from 0.7% to 4.6%.

The reading fixed in advance: the speed tests do not yet show the promised fibre. But the test has a big limitation: in small villages almost nobody runs speed tests. Even in villages that left the list after 2023, where operators report fast internet, the signal shows in only 10.6%. Had fibre reached all 994 villages, chosen from the 1,439 eligible, the eligible group would be expected near 8%, not the 20%-plus of villages with long-standing fast internet; it shows 2.0%. Part of the gap may be that a new network has few subscribers in its first months. In zone 5, with a completion notice from June 2026, the signal shows in 3 of the 95 eligible villages still on the 2025 list. The tests cannot say how many villages were connected; ANCOM's 2026 list will.

The counties with the most places on the list#

The places on the 2025 list lie in 40 counties and 660 communes and towns. Alba alone has 319, a fifth of the whole list.

Communes where no village has fast fixed internet#

In 36 communes, every village is on the 2025 list. The largest is Cornereva, in Caraș-Severin, with 40 villages.

Questions#

What does it mean for a village to be a "white zone"?

That, according to operators, no household there can buy fixed internet (fibre, cable, copper or fixed radio) of at least 100 Mbps. The threshold is set by Law 175/2022.

Does it mean the village has no internet at all?

Not necessarily. Many listed villages have slower fixed internet or 4G mobile coverage. For at least 525 of them, the 2023 data from the programme's consultation showed no 4G either.

Who makes the list, and how reliable is it?

ANCOM, from operators' reports. It is not checked on the ground. A village can be wrongly listed, or missing, if an operator reported wrongly.

When will the 2026 list appear?

Operators had to report the data between 1 May and 30 June 2026. As of 1 November 2026 the list had not been published. This page will be updated when it is.

My village is EU-eligible. Will it get fibre?

The public data cannot say. The contracts require a minimum number of villages per zone, and operators chose theirs from the eligible list. The ministry has not published the list of the 994 villages; the town hall or the zone's operator can say whether a village is included.

Sources and method#

White-zone lists: ANCOM's 2022 file (the 2021 inventory by speed class), and the 2023, 2024 and 2025 lists, joined by SIRUTA code (Romania's official locality code). Map points come from OpenStreetMap place nodes that carry a SIRUTA code.

• ANCOM, Access to internet services: the 2022–2025 lists.
• Annex 16 to the PNRR C7 I11 guide: 1,439 eligible places, fixed, 4G and 5G coverage (the programme’s public consultation, 2023).
• Ministry of Economy, 5 March 2025: contracts signed for 994 places.
• PNRR component 7 page: budget, orders, timetable.
• DC Business, 18 March 2026: payment deadline moved to 30 June 2026.
• Comunic@ții Mobile: operators reporting for the 2026 list, 1 May–30 June 2026.
• Operator notices: zone 5, zone 10, zones 4 and 7.
• Speedtest by Ookla Global Fixed Network Performance Maps, quarters 2025 Q2 and 2026 Q3, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Figures derived from these data are published under the same licence.
• OpenStreetMap (ODbL), for village positions; county outlines from the 2025 administrative boundaries.