Bolivia is set to auction several blocks of spectrum in the 1.5/1.6 GHz; 1.7 /2.1 GHz; 1.9 GHz and 700 MHz nationwide. The Regulation and Supervision Authority for Telecommunications and Transport (ATT is its Spanish acronym) presented the bidding schedule for the 2013 management.
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The schedule document does not specify the amount of MHz to be assigned, or if the bands will be allocated to specific services or what the process might be regarding technological neutrality.
As noted by RCR Wireless syndicate partner Signals Telecom, the regulator also plans to auction blocks in the 900 MHz, 2.5 GHz and 5.2 GHz for some specific locations at the same time. In total, 13 bidding events could take place during the first quarter of 2013.
The consultant firm Signals noted that a number of bands are expected to be used to enhance the quality of mobile broadband services and even to deploy new networks, such as LTE.
Moreover, the regulator could reserve some spectrum segments for new entrants, which would respond to the requests of several cooperatives in the country to bring a new competitor to the mobile services sector.
In December, Entel Movil, a subsidiary of the fixed-line incumbent, Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel), launched LTE services using the 700 MHz spectrum band.
