Costa Rican telecoms regulator Sutel has said that it is tendering for offers for the auction of spectrum blocks in the 850MHz, 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz bands, according to La Nacion newspaper. Written bids must be received by November 5.
Sutel was forced…
Costa Rican telecoms regulator Sutel has said that it is tendering for offers for the auction of spectrum blocks in the 850MHz, 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz bands, according to La Nacion newspaper. Written bids must be received by November 5.
Sutel was forced to restart the bidding process by Costa Rica’s constitutional court last week and has been told it must find a winner within the next three months.
The Costa Rican telecoms market, one of the least developed in Latin America, is dominated by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). In order to break the monopoly of ICE and help develop the national telecommunications infrastructure, the government has been trying to encourage foreign companies into the Costa Rican market to compete in the fixed-line and mobile markets.
The regulator said that each of the three licenses would cost US$70m, with the proceeds earmarked for the universal services fund, Fonatel.
Bidders must certify that they are already industry players with a minimum of 1.8 million mobile subscribers, a minimum of five years working in any one country, experience deploying greenfield operations and an annual income of at least US$450m from mobile services.
The participants have two weeks to request clarifications or to appeal against terms of the bidding rules. Technical offers will be considered first, after which qualified companies will proceed to a second round and then the licences will be awarded to the highest financial bids.
The auction was originally slated for last February, but was postponed to allow a probe into a suspected conflict of interest regarding one of the potential bidders, as well as investigate potential irregularities in the way Sutel was conducting the bidding process.
It is widely expected that Telefónica, Cable & Wireless, Millicom and América Móvil will be interested in bidding for the licences. Denis O’Brien, owner of Digicel has previously stated his company’s interest in the country.
