Mexico’s communications ministry plans to conduct the tender for setting up the country’s 700 MHz wholesale network this autumn. It hopes work on the project to begin by the end of the year.
The country decided to use the band for a shared network…
Mexico’s communications ministry plans to conduct the tender for setting up the country’s 700 MHz wholesale network this autumn. It hopes work on the project to begin by the end of the year.
The country decided to use the band for a shared network rather than sell it to operators as part of its bid to reform the mobile sector, where America Movil (AMX) has 70% of mobile subscribers.
According to the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes’ (SCT) programme for the rest of the year, the tender document for the project will be released in August or September.
Proposals from network builders will then be analysed in October and the winner will be chosen in November. The contract will be signed in December. The SCT said the network will be in operation by the end of 2018.
Once it is built the network will cover 70% of the country and companies will compete to administer the network, and then lease the beachfront frequencies – ideal for LTE – to operators.
Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei and Intel have all been reported to be candidates to build the network. Mexican newspaper La Cronica de Hoy said the network will require an investment of Ps39bn (US$3bn), which will be made up of public and private capital.
In April Mexico’s government was reported to be in talks with Chinese officials regarding the financing of the network.
China Development Bank and other Chinese state-owned banks were said to be in discussions with Mexico about financing the networks, which would likely be built with Huawei equipment. Mexico was reported to be talking to other bidders as well.
