Mexico's Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) has finally launched the tender to build the country's shared mobile network around two years after the infrastructure project was first proposed as part of the reform to curb the market dominance of America Movil. Announcing the launch, SCT head Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said the winning bidder will be awarded 90 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band and a 20-year public-private partnership to build the network but will need to cover at least 85 percent of the population and won't be permitted to sublet spectrum. The government has appointed Merrill Lynch as the sole financial advisor for the project with a view to attracting national and foreign investors. Ruiz Esparza added that bids are due by 08 August, with a decision to follow on 24 August and the award of the contract slated for 07 November.
In May the SCT said the cost of the initiative had been reduced from USD 10 billion to USD 7 billion over the next ten years, with the private sector assuming most of the cost of deploying some 12,000 base stations. In July it said it had received a total of 39 expressions of interest to roll out and operate the shared network. Interested providers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Cisco Systems, Huawei, Nokia, China Telecom, Motorola Solutions and Alestra. The 700 MHz band was freed up after the country completed its digital migration on 31 December.
