Subtel opens Los Lagos and Aysen trunk link tender
Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel) has opened an official call for tenders for the Los Lagos and Aysen terrestrial trunks of the 4400km Fibra Optica Austral (FOA) telecoms project in Chile.
The new tender is in addition to the award by the Council of Development of Telecommunications (CDT) of the Austral Submarine Trunk to Communication and Rural Telephony SA (CTR), and the Magallanes Terrestrial Trunk to Conductividad Austral Ltda, in October 2017.
The new tender increases the amount of subsidy that the winning bidder will be able to request by 20%, while also calling for a reduction of at least 50% in the commercial tariff of the terrestrial optical channel for projects approved by the CDT.
Fondo de Desarrollo de las Telecomunicaciones (FDT), via its subsidiary FDT Management, has been cleared to provide up to $65 million in financing for the project. The concessions will be awarded in July and construction is expected to take up to two years.