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Sole remaining bidder backed by Morgan Stanley, World Bank, gets 20-year licence to operate nationwide wholesale network.
Mexico this week awarded a licence to build and operate a nationwide wholesale mobile network to the Altan consortium, the only group still in the running for the contract.
Altan is led by funds owned by Morgan Stanley and the World Bank, and by a fund owned by Eugenio Galdon, the founder of Spain’s Grupo Multitel, which supplies equipment and services to cable providers.
"We are absolutely satisfied with the result," Galdon said, in a statement on Thursday. "The investors that make up the group are showing their confidence and their interest in the future and present of the country."
By winning the tender, Altan will be granted cheap access to spectrum in the 700-MHz band and a 20-year public-private partnership (PPP) to build out and operate a wholesale LTE network. The network is expected to cost around $7 billion.
Altan has pledged to deploy a network covering 92.2% of the population, surpassing the 85% minimum coverage target specified in the tender.
The network is due to begin commercial operations no later than 31 March 2018, and will cover 30% of the population at launch.
Mexico’s secretary of communications and transport (SCT), Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, described the tender result as "an historic moment for the Government of the Republic, society as a whole and the Mexican telecommunications industry."
It is worth noting though that in the end, Altan was the sole bidder for the contract, after the only competitor, a group led by Rivada Networks, was disqualified after it failed to provide financial guarantees when it submitted its bid.
Rivada has challenged the decision to disqualify it, while the SCT has talked up the impartiality and transparency of the bidding process.
