Mexican regulator the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) has opened a wide-ranging investigation into market concentration across the country’s telecoms and media sectors.
The new review will look at the mobile, fixed-line, broadband, and…
Mexican regulator the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) has opened a wide-ranging investigation into market concentration across the country’s telecoms and media sectors.
The new review will look at the mobile, fixed-line, broadband, and pay-TV markets, along with parts of the media such as advertising.
The probe is reported to be separate to the IFT’s examination of the leading market players in telecoms and pay-TV – America Movil and Televisa – which has been set up to establish if the companies are “dominant”.
In the government’s state-run publication Diario Oficial de la Federacion, it said the new procedure was to “determine whether there is a concentration that would have the object or effect [to] diminish, impair or prevent … free competition in the markets mentioned”.
The IFT has between 30 and 120 days to carry out the investigation, although the government added that this period could be extended.
The regulator has the power to enforce asymmetrical regulations on operators and can go as far as revoking licences and forcing asset sales if companies do not comply with its pro-competition measures.
The IFT was created earlier this year on the back of bipartisan reforms, signed into law by Mexico’s president Enrique Pena Nieto in June.
AMX has a reported 80% of the fixed-line and 70% of the mobile market, while Televisa has roughly 60% of the pay-TV market and is Mexico’s largest satellite-TV and cable operator.
