Dominican Republic declares spectrum tender void

The Dominican Republic declared a spectrum tender void as the only bidder, Trilogy Dominicana (Viva), did not comply with the requirements.

Last year, regulator Indotel launched the tender for frequencies in the 700MHz, 2.3GHz and 3.6GHz bands.

Claro and Altice registered to participate but did not submit bids. Both companies won spectrum in the 3.5GHz band in 2021, in a tender that raised US$73.8 million.

Viva, a unit of Telemicro media group, presented an offer for 40MHz in the 700MHz band and for 60MHz in the 3.6GHz band in May.

However, Indotel's resolution said Viva “does not meet the accreditation requirements of minimum financial capacity to be awarded” spectrum. The company has negative net liquid assets and the financial statements reflect “substantial doubt about the ability to continue operating.”

Also, Viva did not deposit the required guarantee to support the offer, although it presented bank guarantee approval letters issued by local lender BDI, involving US$2mn for the 700MHz band and US$300,000 for the 3.6GHz band, plus a proposal for a cash guarantee.

But Indotel also said that Viva did not offer sufficient information about the network's topology and the technologies to be used in the bands, the proposed signaling and transmission plans, technical information on the minimum expansion plan and data security, among others.

Moreover, tower firms Phoenix Tower Dominicana and Teletorres del Caribe warned that Viva was not a suitable bidder because it hasn't paid its bills for using the companies' infrastructure. The amount of the debt was not disclosed.

Indotel said the comments by the companies were not decisive in declaring the tender void, but they added to the financial concerns.

Viva “has not demonstrated that it has sufficient net liquid assets to cover three months without additional income from the network and has not proven that it has sufficient financial capacity,” the resolution said.