Claro, Altice spend US$74mn to use 5G spectrum in Dominican Republic

Operators Claro and Altice were the winners of the radio spectrum tender held in the Dominican Republic that will allow the deployment of 5G services.

Regulator Indotel estimates that this tender will produce nearly US$74mn in revenues for the country over the next 20 years.

Claro, subsidiary of Mexican telco América Móvil, will pay US$53.1mn to use the spectrum over the next 20 years, while Altice, based in the Netherlands, will spend US$20.7mn for 14 years of use.

The former made the highest economic offer, with a bid of nearly US$38,000 per MHz per year, which gave it the option of choosing the first spectrum block, the firm opting to take 70MHz in the 3.3-3.4MHz band for a total amount of US$2.66mn per annum.

Altice, meanwhile, will pay US$1.44mn per year to operate 70MHz of spectrum in the 3.4-3.6MHz bands for 14 years at US$21,100 per year.

The regulator did not state whether other offers were made for the 698-802MHz band, which was also available in this bidding process. BNamericas tried to contact Indotel but did not receive a response by press time.

At the end of June, the Dominican Republic had 7.28mn active mobile lines with data services. Claro has the largest market share with 4.3mn, followed by Altice with 2.6mn and Viva, with just over 360,000 users.

CONCESSIONS

Before the auction, Indotel signed the concession contracts and an agreement was reached with the operators on the duration of each contract to operate telecommunications services in the country.

Trilogy (Viva), which did not participate in the spectrum tender, to a contract until 2034, Altice until 2035 and Claro until 2041.

At the time, Indotel estimated that the operators would make investments of US$115mn over the next four years.