Mexico announced yesterday it will bail out Altan Redes, a telecommunications company that had won rights to build out a wholesale national mobile network, according to Reuters. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2021.
“The Mexican state is already the majority partner, it has the direction and the administration of the company,” said Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, adding that the move will secure internet access in all towns and free WiFi in public squares, schools and hospitals.
Since 2016, Altan Redes has been building a shared network known as Red Compartida that was designed to offer competition to MNO behemoth America Movil under the direction of the family of billionaire Carlos Slim.
In March, IFT, the country’s telecom regulator, allowed the carrier an extended target of 92.2 percent coverage compliance stretching it to January 24, 2028, rather than 2024. The new financing terms include $161 million from the Mexican development bank, with another $166.6 million through supplier participation, Reuters reported. In addition, shareholders will add $50.5 million to the coffers while clients kick in the remaining $10 million.
The debt will be converted to new shares in the public-private partnership that will be owned by the Mexican state.
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