During 2021, the Indotel (Dominican Telecommunications Institute) will center on one of the focuses of the current management, which began operating in the middle of last year, and was crystallized in the National Spectrum Policy. In January the specifications of the process to assign spectrum in 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz will be known, which will deliver licenses of national scope for the remaining time of concessions to those who already have them; and in the case of starters, for a period of 20 years.

Specially, the 703-748 MHz portion paired with 758-803 MHz (a total of 90 MHz), segmented into 9 blocks of 5 + 5 MHz (FDD), will be auctioned; and 3,300-3,460 MHz (a total of 160 MHz), segmented into 16 10 MHz blocks (TDD). According to Luis Scheker, director of Regulation and Defense of Competition of the regulator, in a virtual event last week, there will be time for consultations until April, and for answers, up to a month later. Then, in June, Envelopes A and B (technical proposal and economic offer) will be presented; In July the results of Envelope A and the limit to be up to date with obligations to Indotel will be known; and in August the opening of Envelope B and the selection of winning offers will take place. Contracts are expected to be signed in September.

The economic offers will be selected based on the price offered by MHz per year. Regarding payment, the successful bidders will pay based on the price offered for the amount of MHz awarded and the remaining years of their concession or 20 years, as appropriate. Thus, it is sought to mitigate the asymmetry due to concession times and avoid legal uncertainty, considered Scheker.

To face this process, the regulator has established spectrum caps of 70 MHz in low bands (

The tender also includes coverage obligations. In the case of 700 MHz, the successful bidders must cover one community that is not connected for each MHz assigned, according to a list prepared by Indotel. 30% of the communities must be connected by the second year of concession, and 100% by the fifth year. In this case, there is a caveat for successful bidders who previously did not have low bands: only 100% will be required at the 5th year.

On the other hand, the eventual winners will have to cover a percentage of the population at two years, and another at 5 years with 700MHz. "The 700 MHz frequency awardee that already has spectrum in low bands, will have to offer national roaming (voice and data) for up to 3 years (within the 4th year of award) to whoever acquires 700 MHz spectrum and previously had no frequencies in low bands,” clarified the official.

As for the obligations for 3,300-3,460 MHz, the winners must deploy networks and provide services with this spectrum in the most populated municipalities, with coverage objectives within the first 24 months, and 36 months.

Current outlook. The segment to be tendered at 3.5 GHz is clear, although Indotel clarified that if necessary, it will face a reordering of occupants of the 3.3-3.6 GHz band, "to ensure that everyone has the spectrum assigned."  As for 700 MHz, as Julissa Cruz, director of Indotel, had already advanced during the Big Players Map Day 2020 event, it is assigned to open television channels but would be cleared by the time of the assignment for IMT.

Currently the Dominican mobile market is led by Claro, with around 60% share, followed by Altice with 33% and Viva with the remaining 6%. A similar distribution occurs in the mobile broadband market, according to data provided by Indotel to Convergencialatina.