Uruguay’s regulator URSEC has until the end of April to hold 5G spectrum auctions after the tender’s specifications were cleared by the country’s President Luis Lacalle Pou on 30th March.
URSEC (Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones) has 30 days to conduct the bidding on three 100MHz allocations of 3.5GHz spectrum. One of the blocks has been pre-allocated to state-owned Antel, but each will require a minimum bid of US$28 million for a 25-year validity period.
Winning bidders will be required to deploy at least 70 base stations within a year of receiving their licence. At the end of two years, licensees must have a minimum of two base stations in at least ten of Uruguay’s 19 telecom ‘departments’, and in all 19 by the end of the third year.
The auction terms specify that in order to bid, interested parties must have provided mobile services in Europe, Central America, North America or South America for at least two years. This condition was expected, but disqualifies newcomer Dedicado from obtaining a licence at auction.
