The Superintendence of Telecommunications (SUTEL) and the Government of the Republic of Costa Rica announced on July 31, 2024, the opening to receive offers for the concession of the 5G radio spectrum. The deadline for submitting bids will be 20 business days from the next business day following the date of publication of the invitation in the official gazette, La Gaceta, which was made in supplement No. 134 to Gazette No. 140 on July 31, 2024.
The purpose of this concession is to grant a license to a concessionaire to hold the right to use and exploit specific frequencies of the national radio spectrum, enabling the operation of Public Telecommunications Networks and the provision of Telecommunications Services through the implementation of IMT systems.
The tender post specifies the availability of concessions for blocks of frequency ranges, which correspond to: four (4) paired blocks of 10 MHz (2 x 10 MHz) and one (1) paired block of 5 MHz (2 x 5 MHz) in the 700 MHz band, up to two (2) blocks of 50 MHz in the 2300 MHz band, up to eight (8) blocks of 25 MHz in the 3300 MHz to 3500 MHz band, up to four (4) blocks of 25 MHz in the 3600 MHz to 3700 MHz band, up to three (3) blocks of 400 MHz and one (1) block of 50 MHz in the 26 GHz band, and up to five (5) blocks of 400 MHz in the 28 GHz band, with the possibility of providing coverage throughout the national territory. These blocks were allocated in accordance with Article 1 of Executive Agreement No. 031-2023-TEL-MICITT and Executive Agreements No. 090-2023-TEL-MICITT and No. 091-2023-TEL-MICITT.
Eligible bidders must submit a Valid Bid to be considered in subsequent stages of the competition, which may result in a Winning Bid in one of the auction phases. Initially, there will be Phase 1 for National deployment, corresponding to Generic Blocks available in various frequency bands with national coverage, through a procedure called simultaneous clock auction of multiple rounds.
Following this phase, Phase 2 for Regional deployment will take place on the next business day, through a procedure called simultaneous single-round auction, consisting of the auction of remaining Generic Blocks in various frequency bands with regional coverage.
According to information available on the communication channels of the Superintendence of Telecommunications, this Tender features a bidding modality different from the usual one. Bidders must bid 90% of the value of the radio spectrum through the construction of telecommunications infrastructure units (towers) in the 134 priority districts with low or no connectivity, identified by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology, and Telecommunications (MICITT).
The remaining 10% will correspond to economic resources that will be collected once contracts are perfected with the creditors of the different concessions and will be used by programs of the National Telecommunications Fund (FONATEL) to finance projects related to telecommunications and internet in vulnerable areas.
It is important to note that, in accordance with Article 93 of the Regulations to the General Public Procurement Law, SUTEL may receive requests for clarifications on the text of the tender document within eight (8) business days following its publication, and the institution will have five (5) business days to resolve them.
All information related to this procurement is available on the SUTEL website.
For any additional inquiries, you may contact our partner Roy Ramos at rramos@consortiumlegal.com