Mexico. The Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) through its Financial and Compliance Audit: 16-0-09100-02-0327 327-DE questions in its opinion whether the Shared Public Network will be in a position to start operations on March 31, 2018.
Specifically mentions "In March 2018, Altán will have to meet the first milestone of providing network coverage to 30% of the population, it is estimated that, at that date, services will not be able to be provided to the population; as of November 2017 its commercial offer had not been approved by the IFT and the deployment of the services to end users is conditional on its approval."
Although the ASF establishes its concerns about the Shared Network, the previous paragraph is imprecise since, being a wholesaler, the key to compliance is not to provide services to the population, but, as of March 31, Altán has the obligation to comply with the coverage of 30%, as well as with the start of commercial operations as established in the Public-Private Partnership Contract:
"The developer undertakes and obliges to start Commercial Operations no later than March 31, 2018; to execute the Project, and to comply with the commitments of the Deployment calendar, in the terms established in this Contract and in the Wholesale and Spectrum Concession Titles."
Therefore, it should be remembered that on December 19, 2017, Altán Redes presented its Reference Offer to the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), however, the Plenary of the Institute resolved in January 2018 that it should be modified and presented 10 business days after the date of notification with the relevant modifications to be reviewed again.
The matter worries the ASF because as of Friday, February 23, 2018, the new Reference Offer had not yet been authorized, which, according to the contract, could put at risk the start of its commercial operation.
Every effort has been made to move the Shared Network forward, such as forcing smartphones put up for sale from now on to have the capacity to use the 700 MHz band, or generating incentives to contract capacity in future tenders, among others. Given this scenario, it would be absurd for the Institute not to approve the Reference Offer in a timely manner so that the Shared Network can fulfill its obligations on March 31.
Have no doubt, the Shared Network will come into operation on March 31. The real challenge of the Shared Network is not in its deployment and in the beginning of commercial operations, but in the fact that subsequent years it generates enough traffic to make it a sustainable business and has been worth the deployment and use of all public resources for its realization as a project for universal connectivity in Mexico.
Text written by Gonzalo Rojon of The Competitive Intelligence Unit.
