The bidding process for Mexico’s shared network has been postponed as the communications ministry said it needs more time to deal with “the number and complexity of queries and requests for clarification submitted by the contestants,” El Universal reported.

The terms of the bid were released on 29 January.

The Secretariat of Communications and Transport wanted to have a meeting to formulate responses to the queries on 22 March, but moved the date to 6 April as it needs more time.

This caused the deadline for proposals to be moved from 8 August to 8 September, and the decision on winners to be announced on 28 September instead of 24 August.

Interested suppliers include Cisco/Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, China Telecom, Motorola Solutions and Alestra.

Requirements to take part in the process include having assets worth $890 million and a projected model for the next 10 years.

The shared network is a result of the completion of Mexico’s digital switchover in December, which freed up the 700MHz band for a shared 4G network.