Mexican mobile operator Nextel Mexico has agreed a loan deal worth up to US$375m from the China Development Bank (CDB) in order to fund the acquisition of 3G network equipment from Chinese vendor Huawei.
The loan was revealed in a statement by NII…
Mexican mobile operator Nextel Mexico has agreed a loan deal worth up to US$375m from the China Development Bank (CDB) in order to fund the acquisition of 3G network equipment from Chinese vendor Huawei.
The loan was revealed in a statement by NII Holdings, a US holding company that controls Nextel Mexico and other Nextel telecoms operations elsewhere in Latin America.
Under the terms of the deal, Nextel Mexico will receive up to US$375m in order to assist its deployment of a 3G network in Mexico.
The financing has a ten-year maturity period.
In February, Huawei was selected to provide equipment for new 3G CDMA networks for Nextel Mexico and Nextel Brazil.
Gokul Hemmady, CFO of NII Holdings, said: “We are extremely pleased that Nextel Mexico secured this funding, which is consistent with our strategy of obtaining long term financing with attractive rates at the market level.
“We believe this financing places us in a strong position to evolve our business while pursuing our growth initiatives in Mexico. This agreement with CDB further enables Nextel Mexico to take a significant step forward in executing its 3G strategy.”
In October 2010, Nextel Mexico was granted a concession to use 30MHz of AWS spectrum in the 1710-1770MHz and 2110-2170MHz bands.
The company is looking to use this spectrum as it develops a 3G network across Mexico.
NII Holdings’ Nextel brand operates in five LatAm countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru.
