Avantel Questions Comcel WiMax Proposals

Colombian mobile operator Avantel has raised further questions regarding the legitimacy of proposals made by competitor Comcel for an upcoming auction for WiMax licenses in the 3.5GHz spectrum band, according to an official report by Colombia's communications ministry Mincomunicaciones.

Earlier this month, Mincomunicaciones came under fire from several participants in the auction who accused the ministry of receiving proposals by Comcel after the 4pm deadline on Monday August 14.

In the statement, Avantel's representative, Andrés Jaramillo is quoted as raising questions about the seals of the envelopes, which confirm the exact time they were received by the ministry.

"It is curious that Comcel has reception seals for 4pm on two different envelopes, while the other applicants have a sticker with hours, minutes, and seconds," Jaramillo said.

Comcel, the local unit of Mexico's América Móvilhas made requests for licenses to offer wireless broadband services in all 32 of Colombia's departments. Gerardo Porras, a representative of telecom and internet company Telejamundí said in a radio interview after the presentation of the proposals that Comcel had arrived 5 minutes late.

Comcel representatives have maintained that their proposals were delivered on time. "The envelopes were delivered at 4pm on August 14, 2006, signed by the [ministry] coordinator," Comcel legal representative Hilda María Pardo said in the statement.

Cable operator Cablecentro representative Mauricio Martínez also raised questions about envelopes delivered by Citynet WiMax, pointing out that some of their envelopes had seals marked after the deadline of 4pm, according to the statement.

Citynet representative Benjamín Del Rio responded by saying that the discrepancy in time was due to "the time required to ratify the documents."

The ministry will evaluate the proposals and make their decision in the coming weeks.

BNAmericas.com"

Posted to the site on 29th August 2006