Costa Rica’s telecommunications regulator has published a preliminary request for bids to open the Central American country’s cell-phone market to private companies, heralding the end of a 47-year state monopoly.
The country’s regulator, known as SUTEL, yesterday released a draft of bidding rules on its website for three mobile spectrum licenses after the Comptroller’s Office dropped a conflicts of interest probe that delayed bidding by three months, said SUTEL President George Miley.
SUTEL hopes to award concessions as early as September, Miley said in a telephone interview from San Jose. He expects bidding comparable to recent concessions in Honduras and Panama that exceeded $80 million.
Companies interested in bidding include Irish-owned mobile operator Digicel Group Ltd., America Movil, Latin America’s largest wireless-phone carrier, Spain’s Telefonica SA, London- based Cable & Wireless Plc, and Millicom International Cellular SA, Miley said.
With the exception of Cuba, Costa Rica is the last remaining Latin American country with a state telecommunications monopoly, Miley said.
Costa Rica agreed to end the monopoly under the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., which was passed in a 2007 referendum.
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