Mexico threatens suit against Rivada Networks for alleging Red Compartida improprieties.

The Ministry of Communications and Transportation of México (SCT) received two bids to develop the project Red Compartida. The biding teams were the Consorcio Altan and a consortium formed by Rivada Networks and Spectrum Frontier LP. This proposal was declared “non-solvent” for not submitting a bid bond mandated by the tender rules. In November, SCT awarded the project to the Consorcio Altan.

Rivada Networks has recently announced that it will no accept the final decision of the tender process for the Red Compartida telecom PPP project. The Rivada consortium, convinced of the importance of the project for the economic development of Mexico stated that Consorcio Altan had had access to confidential information during the process. Rivada said that the winning Altan consortium bid is “essentially a photocopy” of a supposedly confidential business plan created for the Mexican government.

The company also secured a consultant’s deposition that outlined several questionable actions in the development of the procurement.

According to sources, Mexican government officials threatened to sue Rivada Networks for these allegations. SCT hired the law firm of Jones Day to "defend the honor and reputation of Mexican institutions” against allegations by Rivada Networks.

The project includes design, installation, deployment, operation, maintenance and updating of the Shared Network and Wholesale Telecom Service. The private developer will be responsible for implementing a new telecom system including the optimization of the assigned spectrum (700 MHz band). The total budget for the project is estimated around US$7 billions.