What to expect from Altán and CFE-TEIT under Sheinbaum

A greater role for state telco CFE-TEIT and its integration with backbone network Altán are expected in Mexico under Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency.

Sheinbaum, who took office Tuesday, will continue what predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador has done in terms of connectivity and has set the goal of providing telecommunications services to a total of 66,062 localities, according to her electoral platform. More than 8mn people live in these localities.

The new government also plans to add almost 400,000 public Wi-Fi spots to the 140,000 existing points.

Emiliano Calderón Mercado, former head of the national digital strategy, will accompany Sheinbaum in her connectivity policy as head of the CFE-TEIT strategy.

In his previous role, Calderón Mercado worked closely with López Obrador's Internet de Todos (Internet for All) program.

López Obrador has left everything ready for the state telecommunications company to focus on connectivity policies.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that CFE-TEIT could assume Altán's outstanding debts with the aim of taking more control of the operator that was rescued by the government in 2022. To do so, the state-owned company has established a trust with Banco Azteca, reported local media outlet Expansión.

Altán's debt, according to media reports, amounts to 30bn pesos (US$1.52bn).

While under state administration, the company managed to increase its revenues to over 2bn pesos in the second quarter of 2024, according to data from regulator IFT published by newspaper El Economista.

The figure is the highest since Altán was launched in 2018 and exceeds the revenues of other companies in the telecommunications market.

Altán has around 135 virtual mobile operators on its 4G infrastructure. The company is interested in acquiring portions of spectrum to be able to enter the 5G market.

In her electoral platform, Sheinbaum mentioned the need to integrate all existing telecommunications infrastructure, satellite and spectral resources owned by CFE-TEIT, Financiera para el Bienestar, Organismo Promotor de Inversión de Telecomunicaciones and Altán Redes.

The president will also focus on continuing to deploy connectivity networks and promised a new satellite for Mexico.

Congress is debating a constitutional reform that would allow CFE-TEIT to leverage itself, enabling it to offer retail services. Currently, CFE-TEIT can only offer these services in areas where there are no other competitors.

The changes in CFE-TEIT and the constitutional reform that seeks to eliminate IFT will give the government a greater role in telecommunications issues.

The risk, analysts say, is that the government becomes both a regulator and a competitor.

CURRENT SITUATION

According to CFE-TEIT data at the end of August, 95.5% of the country's localities had mobile telephone and internet services.

To date, CFE-TEIT has recorded 103,647 free internet connections throughout Mexico and 116,555 locations with mobile phone and internet coverage.

The public telecommunications network has 2,844 towers in operation.

CFE-TEIT has 536,173 active users for mobile telephony, wireless broadband and IoT services.