Mexico approves secondary spectrum market guidelines

Mexico's telecoms regulator IFT has approved a set of general guidelines for a secondary spectrum market to promote subleasing and to prevent idle spectrum from remaining unused.

Interested parties may now trade radio spectrum among themselves, without relying on the state to conduct a bidding process, reducing one of the main barriers to entry for new competitors. However, the IFT will still be responsible for overseeing negotiations on spectrum.

The goal is to provide "flexibility, agility and dynamism to the management of radio spectrum," according to an announcement in the official gazette.

"We believe that spectrum leasing is a positive thing," Fernando López, regional director of inter-American telecom association Asiet for Mexico and Central America, told BNamericas. "It allows for greater efficiency in the use of an important resource and makes the procedure far less complex."

Last year, the regulator paved the way for the creation of a secondary spectrum market by allowing the exchange of frequency blocks between AT&T and Movistar.