The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission tenders 216 spectrum blocks of 2.3 GHz

The Plenary of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission approved and issued the Call and the Guidelines for Tender CRT-RRI-01-2026, through which 216 blocks of 20 MHz in the 2.3 GHz band will be conceded for a term of ten years. The agreement was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 (No. 274/2026), pages 52 to 61, via Agreement P/CRT/EXT/02102026/146.

The tender is issued based on Article 28 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and Articles 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 55, 57, and 58 of the Law on Telecommunications and Broadcasting, published in the DOF on July 16, 2025. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission is a decentralized administrative body of the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency, and its Plenary, composed of five commissioners, is its highest governing and decision-making body.

The process is part of a route already mapped out by the 2026 Annual Program for the Use and Exploitation of Frequency Bands (January 6, 2026), the 2026 Radio Spectrum Tender Plan (January 12, 2026), and the 2026-2030 National Radio Spectrum Program (May 18, 2026), which provide for making spectrum available to industrial networks. The stated objective is not to expand mass mobile services, but to create a market segment for the provision of capacity to private and industrial networks.

Blocks, coverage, and validity

The call details the following spectrum scheme:

• 60 MHz total available, organized into 20 MHz channels.
• 3 blocks of 20 MHz with coverage in 72 Industrial Regions, equivalent to 216 blocks in Phase 1.
• TDD duplexing and segments of 2340-2360, 2360-2380, and 2380-2400 MHz.
• Blocks with coverage by Industrial Region and blocks with coverage by Polygon.
• Validity of 10 years, with the possibility of extension and the option to defer the granting of the title for up to one year.

The Bid Submission Procedure consists of two stages—Awarding and Assignment—and the Awarding Stage will take place in up to two phases. Phase 2 will only be activated if there is remaining spectrum in the Industrial Regions where Polygons of Interest are located; in this phase, blocks by Polygon will be tendered, including those corresponding to the Economic Development Poles for Well-being in Appendix B6 of the Guidelines.

Competition rules and accumulation limits

The National Antitrust Commission issued an opinion on the Guidelines on September 11, 2026, following the request from the General Directorate of Spectrum Tenders via official letter CRT/DGLE/154/2026 dated September 4. Its main requirements were:

• Clarify the applicable spectrum accumulation limit.
• Allow the procedure to conclude endogenously when excess demand ceases to exist.
• Prevent unauthorized transfers of the awarded titles.
• Extend the timeframes between stages to avoid limiting participation.
• Limit to a single Expression of Interest per Economic Interest Group.

The Guidelines adjusted the accumulation limits by maintaining a single national limit and removing the restriction per band, and increased the number of Industrial Regions from 60 to 72 by subdividing the four largest ones. The 200 km² limit on the size of the polygons was also removed. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit issued a favorable opinion on the Minimum Reference Values on September 24, 2026, in response to official letter CRT/DGLE/159/2026.

Public consultation, calendar, and voting

The project was submitted for public consultation from June 16 to July 20, 2026, in accordance with Agreement P/CRT/EXT/16062026/074. Substantive changes derived from this exercise: the available spectrum increased from 40 to 60 MHz, the block size from 10 to 20 MHz, questions were allowed to be submitted throughout the entire period, and it was specified that the second award phase will use the first-price sealed-bid mechanism. On October 1, 2026, in its XXIX Extraordinary Session, the Plenary approved Agreements P/CRT/EXT/01102026/143 and P/CRT/EXT/01102026/144, which create the Dynamic Spectrum Bidding Platform and the Framework Provisions.

The agreement was approved unanimously in general terms at the Thirtieth Extraordinary Session, held on October 2, 2026. Voting in favor were Commissioner President Norma Solano Rodríguez and Commissioners Adán Salazar Garibay, María de las Mercedes Olivares Tresgallo, and Ledénika Mackensie Méndez González. Commissioner Tania Villa Trápala voted in favor in general, but expressed a particular dissenting vote against the industrial region segmentation model and the absence of a permanent bidding scheme.

The Guidelines can be consulted and downloaded free of charge on the Commission’s portal (www.gob.mx/crt) and on the Dynamic Spectrum Bidding Platform. Interested parties must express their interest within the timeframes of the Activity Calendar, prove legal, administrative, technical, and economic capacities, and obtain a Certificate of Participation to intervene in the procedure.

The relevance of this tender lies in the fact that it opens, for the first time in Mexico, a spectrum market oriented toward industrial and private networks, with rules designed to prevent incumbent operators from absorbing the resource. For telecommunications operators, integrators, and sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, health, and public safety, the process defines access to mid-band capacity for critical applications over the next decade.

Source: Official Gazette of the Federation, No. 274/2026, Wednesday, October 7, 2026, Executive Branch, pp. 52-61 (official reference: Agreement P/CRT/EXT/02102026/146).