Conatel relaunched America Next with a new tender for spectrum in the 700 MHz and 1.7 GHz AWS bands after the previous auction was declared void. The move resets Honduras’s mobile spectrum process and keeps the target of completion in 2027 in place.
Conatel and Honduras
The regulator’s restart is aimed at rising mobile data demand, broader rural coverage and the shift toward fifth-generation networks. Those goals sit behind the tender, but the change for operators is more immediate: the auction is back on the table after the earlier process failed to produce a viable outcome.
700 MHz and AWS
The first auction was voided when only one operator applied. That left the spectrum process without the level of participation needed to move forward, and Conatel’s relaunch gives the market another chance to compete for access to the 700 MHz block and the 1.7 GHz AWS bands.
The new round is meant to repair that gap without changing the end point: completion of the process is targeted in 2027. For mobile operators in Honduras, the practical takeaway is simple — the spectrum opportunity has returned, but the field now has to be broad enough to avoid a repeat of the earlier failure.
Which operators enter the relaunched tender will determine whether Honduras finally gets the wider participation the first auction lacked. If the process again draws only a single applicant, the regulator will be back where it started; if it attracts more, the country can move closer to the coverage expansion and network transition Conatel says it wants.
