Govt. prepares bidding rules for national telecoms network

Chile's government plans to publish bidding rules by year-end for a contract to run a nationwide telecoms network to handle all government communications, called Ruta 5D, the government news service reported. The government wants to hire a private sector company to provide a nationwide network linking all government entities, schools and hospitals, in much the same way as Chile's Route 5 highway runs the length of the country. By bringing together the government's entire communications needs into one contract, the government's e-procurement portal ChileCompra and the interior ministry expect to cut the annual budget of US$70mn for communications by 15%. The government is planning a gradual conversion to this integrated network over the next two years, with 30% of public bodies connected in 2004 and 70% in 2006.