Thursday, December 21, 2017

Liberty invests US$100mn to repair Puerto Rico telecoms infra – Puerto Rico

ICT tender watch: Argentina’s database, T&T property system – Argentina, Trinidad & Tobago

ICT: The week in 10 stories – Regional

ICT Tenders: DR automation solution, Colombia telecom equipment – Colombia, Dominican R.

Millicom sells Rwanda business to bolster LatAm operations – Regional

 

Liberty invests US$100mn to repair Puerto Rico telecoms infra – Puerto Rico

Liberty Global is investing US$100mn to rebuild telecoms infrastructure damaged by Hurricane María in September, according to local daily El Vocero.

Part of the investment will go into fiber optic infrastructure that will be built underground for better protection, Liberty’s customer service and consumer experience VP Waldo Hooker was quoted as saying.

The works are due to be complete by the northern hemisphere’s summer season. Repairs have been slowed by the fact that there is still considerable damage to the electric power network.

Meanwhile, Liberty has activated 24 free public Wi-Fi hotspots around the island.

According to the latest report from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday, 14.6% of the island’s cell sites were out of service, down from 17.1% on Friday. Two out of 78 counties had 50% or more of their cell sites out of service.

Widespread power outages continue in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin, Islands meaning that large percentages of consumers are without either cable or wireline service.

ICT tender watch: Argentina’s database, T&T property system – Argentina, Trinidad & Tobago

Argentina seeks Exadata database servers, as well as related consulting and training services, for an institutional strengthening and financial management program called PROFIP II.

Tender offers must be sent in sealed envelopes to the address indicated below by 3pm local time on January 30. Electronic offers will not be allowed.

All bids must be followed by a maintenance fee in Argentine pesos or US dollars as follows: Lot 1: USD 72,000.00 or ARS 1,115,000.00; Lot 2: US$4,626 or ARS 74,016.00; Lot 3: USD 160.00 or ARS 2,820.00.

Interested companies may obtain additional information by writing to lcozzi@mecon.gob.ar.

Programa de Fortalecimiento Institucional Provincial y de Gestión Financiera PROFIP II

Adress: Balcarce 186, piso 2, of. 240, (C1086AAB)

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, República Argentina.

***

The government of Trinidad & Tobago seeks consultancy services for the development of an automated system for the registration of real and personal property records.

The tender is on behalf of the Registrar General’s Department (RGD), linked to the ministry of the attorney general and legal affairs (MAGLA).

Consulting services include, aside from the system development and implementation, the transfer of data from existing database, the training of personnel and maintenance services for a period of three years, among others.

Expressions of interest can be sent to the address shown below by no later than 1pm (local time) on January 18.

Chairman

Central Tenders Board

116 Frederick Street

PORT OF SPAIN

Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Tel: 1-868-625-3565

Fax: 1-868-625-1809

Email: mofctb@gov.t

ICT: The week in 10 stories – Regional

ARGENTINA

Argentine regulator Enacom has granted local telecoms co-op chamber Catel a license to operate as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in nine provinces starting in 2018.

Catel will invest some US$2mn in a centralized platform to be used by its 31 member co-ops in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Chubut, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza, Misiones, Río Negro, Santa Cruz and Santa Fe, covering a target audience of 2mn users. The entity will essentially operate as an enabler (MVNE) for the co-ops.

The body will offer services through an agreement reached with Telefónica in early November. The move is designed to enable small telcos and cable companies to complement their existing triple play services with mobile, thus helping them compete against the large telcos that will be able to offer pay TV starting next month.

CHILE

Standardization of spectrum bands and other technical details are what stand between 5G and reality. But Chile has decided it can’t wait and will start preparing networks and regulation to hit the ground running in 2020.

América Móvil unit Claro Chile and telecoms infrastructure provider Nokia carried out the first 5G demos in Latin America on Thursday using the 27GHz band.

The demo took place at the offices of Claro Chile, which have been designated the official testing lab for 5G and is supposedly open for all market players to use.

CHILE

Chile’s telecoms regulator Subtel is considering multiple public-private partnership models to finance telecoms infrastructure investment over the next five years. For starters, it will roll out a US$10mn tender to deploy fiber in the city of Iquique in northernmost Tarapacá region (I).

The tender will be awarded before the current administration of President Michelle Bachelet ends in March, Subtel head Rodrigo Ramírez (pictured) told BNamericas.

The project will be financed by the telecoms infrastructure fund and follow a similar format to the US$100mn Fibra Austral submarine and terrestrial cable project connecting the deep south, most of which was awarded to Chilean telco CTR and Huawei Marine in October.

MEXICO

Japanese structured cabling provider Furukawa Electric opened its second industrial plant in Mexico.

The 6,000m2 plant in Mexicali, capital of Baja California state, will produce solutions for the communications market. It includes two operating units: one to produce cables and cords, and the other to assemble and connect optical equipment, cords and accessories.

MEXICO

Mexico’s wholesale shared network Red Compartida is likely to surpass its initial March 2018 coverage threshold of 30% of the population and 28 towns belonging to the Pueblos Mágicos tourism promotion program.

Authorities now expect the network to cover 33-35% of the population and 38 Pueblos Mágicos by the first deployment deadline of March 31. Altán Redes, the consortium deploying the network, expects to cover half of the 111 towns by end-2018.

Edgar Olvera, deputy minister of communications, said Altán – which is currently conducting network tests at its Mexico state control center – needs to deploy some 2,700 telecom towers to meet the 30% coverage goal.

CARIBBEAN

Colm Delves, CEO of Irish-owned Caribbean and Pacific island mobile operator Digicel, has announced he will step down in February. He will be replaced by Alexander Matuschka Greiffenclau.

Delves will stay on as a non-executive director of Digicel.

CARIBBEAN

Liberty Global’s LiLAC Group will be split off and named Liberty Latin America on December 26.

Cable & Wireless Communications, which is part of Liberty Global, announced that John Reid will step down from the position of CEO in early 2018. Reid will remain in the post and will support the transition to new leadership.

PERU

Six companies have filed technical bids for seven regional broadband projects planned for Peru and amounting to US$300mn in total investments.

BRAZIL

The Brazilian ministry of science, technology, innovations and communications (MCTIC) lost 27% of its budget for 2018, and will have little over 3bn reais (around US$900mn) for spending next year.

The congress approved the government’s 2018 budget late Thursday, the first since a federal public spending cap.

Nearly 2.25bn reais of the 3.013bn total MCTIC and related-entities budget will be taken up by personnel and payroll expenses.

BRAZIL

Echoing concerns expressed by rivals Vivo and TIM, Mexican telecom giant América Móvil would rather not have to compete with Chinese players in Brazil.

State-run telcos China Telecom and China Mobile expressed interested in acquiring part of Brazilian telco Oi, which is undergoing a judicial reorganization and needs fresh capital to reduce its debt and increase investment levels.

ICT Tenders: DR automation solution, Colombia telecom equipment – Colombia, Dominican R.

The Dominican Republic’s national health system Senasa is inviting eligible companies to provide quotes to provide an automation solution for its management platform.

The solution must automate and map key processes so that Senasa can have access to pertinent and reliable information in order to facilitate decision-making processes. The modular system should consider a license for 150 users, according to a notice.

The selected company will implement the solution at the Senasa offices in Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic, during a six-month period.

Interested parties must submit their proposals by December 27 at 4pm local time at the address below.

Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, Lorenzo Jimenez de Luis, Resident Representative

Av. Anacaona No. 9, Mirador Sur, Santo Domingo, D.N.

Email: adquisisiones.do@undp.org

***

The agency of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Colombia is inviting eligible companies to bid in a tender to supply telecoms equipment.

The selected supplier will provide five Inmarsat Isatphone 2 satellite telephones, five Inmarsat SIM cards for satellite telecoms systems, five Garmin GPS devices, five Motorola portable radios, and a new SIM card compatible with the Iridium satellite system.

Quotes must be presented by December 19 4pm local Bogotá time. Proposals submitted electronically must not exceed 7MB.

Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, Centro de Servicios – Adquisiciones

Ave. 82 No. 10-62, Piso 3 Oficina de Registro, Bogotá D.C. Colombia

Subject: Contratación dispositivos y servicios de comunicación para la Oficina ONU

Email: onumujeres.colombia@unwomen.org

Millicom sells Rwanda business to bolster LatAm operations – Regional

Millicom has agreed to sell its Rwanda operations to subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel Limited as part of its ongoing strategy to continue bolstering its Latin America operations.

“The sale of our business in Rwanda is in line with our strategy to focus on providing advanced fixed and mobile data services in Latin America,” Millicom CEO Mauricio Ramos said in a statement.

The “transaction is approximately 6x 2017 adjusted EBITDA, payable over two years, consisting of a mix of cash, vendor loan note and earn out,” the telco said. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.

In October, Millicom announced it had completed a transaction with Bharti Airtel Limited, the parent company of Airtel Ghana, to combine operations in Ghana.

Millicom also announced this week it has reduced its ownership stake in technology micro-insurance business BIMA from 20.4% to 12.0% as part of a transaction that sees Allianz X investing $96.6m in the micro-insurance business. As a result of the transaction, Millicom receives US$24mn in cash.

In its Q3 report in October, Ramos highlighted the performance of the company in Paraguay, Bolivia, and Guatemala.

In an interview with BNamericas in February, Ramos said the telco had decided to focus all its efforts on building out 4G LTE and cable fiber networks in Latin America.

Millicom has operations in Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica. In Africa, the company has operations in Chad, Rwanda, Ghana and Senegal.

 

The information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of CANTO and/or its members