Spotlight: The Dominican Republic’s second 5G tender

The Dominican Republic is preparing a second tender for bands to provide 5G services, according to regulator Indotel.

But it remains to be seen if carriers are interested, as the tender involves bands that didn’t attract bids in a process in 2021.

Indotel plans to launch the tender “in the coming months,” a press release said.

The country was the third in the region to auction 5G spectrum, after Chile and Brazil.

Details like amount and prices for the 700MHz bands have not been provided, but Indotel said it expected the auction to conclude in early 2024. A total of 90MHz are available in the 700MHz band.

In the 2021 auction, nine 2×5MHz blocks of 700 MHz spectrum were put up for sale, but operators decided to bid only for spectrum in the 3.5GHz band. 

The winners were Claro and Altice and the government raised US$73mn from the auction.

The watchdog claims that idle spectrum is a waste and that it has taken steps to recover unused frequency.

It also said it has moved to shut down illegal base stations and clean up radio communication bands, so that providers can offer more efficient service in favor of telecoms users.

Yet, unless Indotel provides incentives, revises terms or manages to attract new players, the risk of a new flop is significant. 

In Brazil, which also had blocks of spectrum unassigned in its 5G auction in 2021, regulator Anatel ruled out a new tender, at least in the near term, considering that the chance of having the bands void again was high.

“What we have done is that some companies have asked for the secondary use of bands that were not sold. And we are releasing this secondary use, always emphasizing that this is not permanent, that it has fewer guarantees. One of our main missions is that spectrum is used,” Anatel chief Carlos Baigorri told BNamericas in January.