Latin America mobile operator NII Holdings, which operates under the Nextel brand, has put up for sale its Argentina business, Infobae reports, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter. According to a Nextel senior executive speaking off the record, there are already three potential buyers interested in the Nextel acquisition, including Eduardo Eurnekian’s Corporacion America, Exolgan’s owner Alfredo Roman, and investment fund Fintech Advisory managed by David Martinez.
According to the sources, Nextel is frustrated as it still has no spectrum for provision of 3G services, while its market competitors (Movistar, Personal and Claro) already own 3G spectrum in the 850 and 1900 MHz frequency bands. At one point, the Argentine government promised to auction the frequencies previously used by Unifon, but finally decided to offer this spectrum to state-owned operator Arsat for the development of a new public company called Libre.Ar.
Sources close to Ruben Butvilofsky, president of Nextel Argentina, said the final stroke that led to Nextel’s decision to sell its Argentina unit was the refusal of the Ministry of Communications to allow the company to start offering LTE services. According to another source, Nextel was planning to launch LTE on its 800 MHz spectrum.
