Antonio Casares Carrillo is a Partner and Lilia Euridice Palma Salas and Jorge Aviles-Cerezo are Associates in the Mexico City office.
Telecomm, a Mexican government agency, issued an international Request for Expression of Interest (RFEI) on May 12, 2017, for parties seeking to participate in the Backbone Network Project (Red Troncal).
Background
Telecomm is a governmental entity reporting to Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT). Telecomm has been appointed by the recent Constitutional Reform and the new Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law to build a robust national fiber-optic backbone network by 1) leveraging on existing infrastructure from Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the country's electric utility organization, 2) having access to indefeasible rights of use to a pair of dark fiber-optic strands along the CFE's fiber-optic network and 3) having access to use related passive infrastructure of CFE.
The Red Troncal is a project in which Telecomm has attributions to plan, design and execute the construction and growth of a high-capacity, fiber-optic, national data transport network. The project's goal is to 1) support the development of broadband telecommunications services to regional concessionaires and licensed resellers which require high-capacity and long-distance data transport services to provide a wider assortment of broadband-access services, 2) promote competition in locations served by only one fiber-optic operator and 3) promote services in locations that are unserved.
Request for Expression of Interest
The constitutional reform allows for up to 100 percent direct foreign private investment in the telecommunications sector, therefore Telecomm has issued an international RFEI as a first step to evaluate the feasibility of pursuing a possible International Public-Private Partnership (P3) competitive tender process, according to the Public-Private Partnerships Law.
Telecomm is seeking from interested parties: 1) information on national and international potential participants; 2) feedback regarding concerns, questions and comments; 3) feedback on the related intended tender process; 4) additional information on the capabilities and experiences in similar projects around the world of participating interested parties, individually or as consortiums, and; 5) views on the best strategies and recommendations for successful implementation, growth, deployment and commercialization of the network.
The information obtained could be used by Telecomm to prepare a possible International Public Consultation (IPC) of the tentative tender terms, which will also be published prior to releasing a probable International Public Tender (IPT).
The deadline to present an RFEI is June 9, 2017. Additional details are available from Telecomm and Red Troncal.
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