Shotgunner51
RETIRED INTL MOD
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Abstract
- Mexico has declared a Chinese-backed group - Altán - winner of a tender to build and run a multi-billion dollar mobile network, which covers 92.2 percent of the population within seven years. As the winner, Altán will get cheap use of high quality spectrum in the 700MHz band and a 20-year public-private partnership contract to build a 4G LTE mobile network that operators and virtual network operators can rent. The government has estimated 85 percent coverage would require an investment of some $3.5 billion, and 95 percent around $7 billion.
- Mexico's government had to tender the shared network under a 2013 telecoms reform aimed at curbing the dominance of Carlos Slim's America Movil. Earlier this month, the government disqualified the only other bidder Rivada for not presenting the bid bond on time.
- The second largest shareholder of Altán is the China Mexico Fund (CMF), with a participation of 23.36%. This is a fund specifically created to invest in and finance infrastructure projects in Mexico. The fund receives seed investment from sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, the rest from China Development Bank. The network is the second investment by the China-Mexico fund.
- It's the first major new investment announced in the country since Donald Trump's U.S. election victory. The planned investment comes as uncertainty clouds Mexico's relations with the United States after Trump's victory. The brash real estate tycoon has threatened to radically shake up trade ties between the two neighbors at Mexico's expense.
