A letter of credit (L/C) lodged with the Mexican authorities to signal a US-based company's serious intent to bid for a mobile network in the country was not submitted according to the regulator.

But the bidding company's founder, Irish entrepreneur Declan Ganley, says the L/C was submitted. He also claims that Rivada Networks has been unfairly disqualified from the bidding process and that there were attempts to steal his consortium's bid documents.

Compliant bid

"We are fully compliant. We have submitted a fully compliant bid. This is supposed to be a competition. But it is hardly a competition if there is only one entry. We provided a guarantee of over US$200 million with the submittal of the bid," he told the Sunday Independent.

"We have provided a cash-backed L/C to the tune of one billion pesos which is what they asked for. We have put cash on deposit in a major Mexican bank to back that L/C, so they have that," he told the Irish newspaper.

Document hijack

Mexico's Secretariat of Communications and Transportation claims it has only received one valid bid for the mobile network, a claim Ganley rejects.

The Irish businessman also claims that hijackers tried but failed to steal his consortium's bidding documents for the Red Compartida mobile network.

Sole bidder

Ganley says he will file a lawsuit against the Mexican state to allow Rivada, which has offices in the US and Ireland, back into the bidding process.

The only other bidder is a consortium comprising Mexican companies Megacable and Axtel. Their bid is currently being assessed according to the authorities.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.