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Regulator says sale of 80 MHz of frequencies could yield 2.2 billion in revenues over 15-year licence term.
The bidding stage of Mexico’s AWS auction has ended, with America Movil submitting the highest offers for three-quarters of the available spectrum, the country’s telecoms regulator revealed on Thursday, adding that it will post the final results of the sale within 10 working days.
America Movil, which is participating in the process through its local Telcel brand, has submitted bids worth 2.1 billion pesos (€103 million) for 2×10 MHZ of AWS-1 spectrum and 2×20 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum (1755-1780/2155-2180 MHz), the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) revealed.
Taking its existing holdings into account, Telcel will have 2×20 MHz of spectrum in both the AWS-1 and AWS-3 bands, the regulator said.
Auction participants were required to agree to the rearrangement of existing spectrum to allow for the creation of contiguous frequency blocks, which IFT says will enable more efficient use of the airwaves for the deployment of 4G services.
AT&T, meanwhile, bid MXN1.03 billion for 2×10 MHz of AWS-1 spectrum, which in total will give it 2×25 MHz across the AWS band.
Factoring in the annual licence fees for the spectrum, the IFT claims the auction will yield close to MXN45 billion (€2.2 billion) in revenues over the next 15 years. America Movil will contribute around MXN31 billion and AT&T MXN12.7 billion, it said.
The auction result changes the spectrum landscape in Mexico, the IFT noted.
Presuming the result stands, America Movil will hold 41.2% of the total available spectrum in the IMT bands, up from 29.8% previously, the regulator explained.
AT&T’s share will drop to 38.2% from 43.7%, while Telefonica’s will slide to 19.5% from 25.1%. Construction firm Grupo SAI will see its share fall to 1.1% from 1.4%.
