British Virgin Islands to hold 700MHz tender in October

The British Virgin Islands Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has announced a tender for the 700MHz spectrum in October.

The spectrum allocation will facilitate the rollout of 4G LTE in the first half of 2016, and improve broadband services throughout the archipelago, the TRC was reported as saying by local media.

The tender will be carried out through a competitive evaluation. "The Commission believes this approach best meets its objective to promote the public interest by awarding spectrum to those operators that offer the most attractive services," the TRC said in a media statement quoted by BVI News.

"Each operator will be given the opportunity to demonstrate how they would use the spectrum to deliver enhance services," it added.

Digicel, Cable & Wireless Communications and CCT Global Communications are expected to bid for the concession.

TRC has started a public consultation process on the award of the 700MHz spectrum, and is also considering tenders for the 450MHz, 1900MHz, 1800/2100 MHz and 2500MHz bands.