Just one company has finally submitted a bid for one of the four sections of Chile’s 'Fibra Optica Austral' project to roll out 3,000 km of fibre-optic infrastructure in the southern Patagonia region. Although telecom regulator Subtel previously announced that 14 national and international companies had expressed an interest in the tenders, regional daily Prensa Austral reported that the only bid was submitted by the company Conexiones y Telefonía Austral. The bidder is interested in the Magallanes connection between Porvenir and Pampa Guanaco and has presented a guarantee of CLP 20.6 million plus an application for a CLP 2.46 billion subsidy.
There were no bidders for the other three stretches, namely a submarine cable between Puerto Montt and Puerto Williams, plus land-based connections from Puerto Montt to Palena and from Caleta Tortel to Coyhaique. Some CLP 62.28 billion has been set aside for the project, which is set to be awarded by January 2017.
