Mexico’s ‘Red Compartida’ – the name given to the country’s nationwide 700MHz LTE wholesale network by its owner, Mexican consortium ALTAN Redes – is set to exceed its target of covering 30% of the population with 4G services by 31 March 2018. El Economista cited the undersecretary of communications Edgar Olvera as saying that the network will be available to between 33% and 35% of the populace by that date, with the 4G footprint set to exceed 50% by end-2018. The executive revealed that ALTAN Redes has rolled out 2,500 mobile sites to date.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, ALTAN – which includes Axtel, Megacable, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Dutch and Chinese investors – was awarded the 700MHz wholesale network deployment contract in November 2016. ALTAN’s proposal offered to provide coverage to 92.2% of the population via the network by 2023, just over the 85.0% minimum stipulated.