Mexico’s Congressmen have called for telecoms regulator Cofotel and the Transport and Communications Ministry to cancel on the recently closed spectrum auction of 1.7GHz band.
The process was greeted with howls of disapproval in the Senate and Congress…
Mexico’s Congressmen have called for telecoms regulator Cofotel and the Transport and Communications Ministry to cancel on the recently closed spectrum auction of 1.7GHz band.
The process was greeted with howls of disapproval in the Senate and Congress of Mexico as the consortium of Televisa and Nextel won the auction in a one-horse race as only qualified bidder.
Many legislators saw the process as unfair and opaque and a ‘shoe-in’ for Televisa and Nextel in opposition to Carlos Slim, the billionaire Mexican media entrepreneur.
The Televisa/Nextel consortium made a comparatively low offer for the spectrum and Javier Corral from the ruling centre-right party, Partido Acción Nacional, argued that the auction has not achieved the best possible result for the state.
He said that awarding the spectrum to Televisa/Nextel would go against Article 28 of the constitution which requires the efficient use of spectrum, the social use of licensed assets, and the avoidance of monopolistic behaviour.
The consortium bid Ps180m (US$14m) for the block, whereas for the same amount of spectrum America Móvil and Telefónica spent a combined Ps5.1bn (US$400m) in comparison.
