On May 6, 2024, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (hereinafter, the “IFT”), published the Public Consultation of the draft terms and conditions of the Public Bidding to grant concessions for the use, development and commercial exploitation of various segments of the radioelectric spectrum available for the provision of Wireless Access services (Bid No. IFT-12), the purpose of which is to receive comments, opinions and contributions from the academic sector, experts on the subject, public or private organizations, and any person or consortium that has interest in the Bid Project No. IFT-12 (hereinafter, the “Project”).
The purpose of the Project is to allow on the bid the concession of the use, development and commercial exploitation for the provision of Wireless Access Services for a term of 20 (twenty) years, in different blocks, in the 600 MHz Band, L Band, AWS Band, PCS Band, 2.5 GHz Band and 800 MHz Band. Although this Project may look like a normal bidding process, the IFT has introduced a novel and relevant change, as it included two new elements that are unprecedent at the national level: (i) the term “Partial Service Area” (hereinafter, “PSA”), and (ii) the concession of the use, exploitation and exploitation of the 600 MHz and L Bands.
Regarding the first point, it is important to point out that previous bids contemplated a very extensive territorial division of the radio electric spectrum with approximately 65 basic service areas in the existing cellular regions. With the inclusion of the APS, the IFT intends to implement a new geographic division of the country of 320 zones, each one made up of two or more municipalities or territorial demarcations within the country, allowing the offering of 6,158 new blocks. This new geographic division will allow operators with less technical capacity, infrastructure or economic power to acquire specific regions of a certain federal entity, without prejudice to the possibility for large or already established operators to group large geographic areas in the national territory.
Now, regarding the second point, the concession of the 600 MHz band will make Mexico the first Latin American country to make it available to the market, which is relevant because this band has a wide geographic coverage and, by being of low frequency, it is possible to overcome obstacles such as trees or buildings, which allows the signal to propagate in rural and suburban areas. On the other hand, the new L Band will allow data transmission at higher speeds than 3G and with a greater (a) range and (b) bandwidth.
The deadline of this consultative process is July 1, 2024. In case you are interested, we would be pleased to support you in submitting comments regarding the Project.
Jose Luis Mejía and Natasha Daniela Nava
