Gitpan (General Internacional Telecom Panama) remained the only interested party at the close of the prequalification round of Panama’s second tender for the licence vacated by Digicel Panama.
A subsidiary of General International Telecom Limited, Gitpan emerged as the sole bidder for PCS licence (No.106) in March 2023. However, the following month Panama’s National Public Services Authority (Autoridad Nacional de los Servicios Publicos, ASEP) re-launched the licensing process after Gitpan failed to provide adequate documentation of its credentials.
ASEP will now evaluate Gitpan’s paperwork, and if it is satisfied then it can ask for cabinet approval to commence negotiations over the 20-year licence. If Gitpan’s application is successful then it will be granted a spectrum holding including 2×15MHz in the 1900MHz band and 2×10MHz in the 700MHz band.
Questions remain regarding Gitpan’s experience in the telecoms industry. When ASEP announced the original tender, the regulator noted that it would favour experienced players over newcomers, going as far as to specify that bidders with less than five years of experience in another market would not be considered.
TeleGeography reports that Gitpan’s parent General International Telecom Limited is UK-based, and was incorporated in June 2021. In October that year, it acquired a 99.3% stake in Telefonica Moviles El Salvador for US$144 million, with the deal closing in January 2022.
Source : Developingtelecoms
