Mexico imposes new asymmetric measures on América Móvil

The plenary session of Mexican telecoms regulator IFT approved new asymmetric measures for América Móvil within the framework of the third review since the operator was declared a dominant economic agent in 2014.

According to the regulator, the review aims to strengthen consumer choice, access to wholesale services, distribution channels and monitoring, and verification mechanisms.

"The IFT resolution does not take into account the profound changes that have occurred more than 10 years after the imposition of asymmetric measures, nor is it based on a comprehensive evaluation of the existing competition in the different markets that make up the telecommunications sector," América Móvil said in a statement.

The measures apply to América Móvil units Telmex, Telcel, Telnor and wholesalers Red Nacional de Última Milla and Red Noroeste.

They include:

• mandatory provision of unlocked prepaid or postpaid devices;
• prohibition of conditioning or associating bonuses, discounts or benefits with the contract for the sale of a device and the contract for telecoms services;
• prohibition of establishing minimum service contract terms;
• prohibition of contacting end users who ported to competitors within 60 calendar days after the move;
• mandatory provision of wholesale national mobile roaming service for up to five years;
• periodic submission of information on the awarding of public contracts.

In the fixed area, the operator is authorized to negotiate wholesale services with terms and characteristics that differ from reference public offers, which must be made available to concessionaires in non-discriminatory terms.

In addition, América Móvil may determine the rates for passive infrastructure sharing, although the reference offer must be approved by the IFT.

The regulator has removed the obligation to provide new time division multiplexing. The decision takes effect in January 2025.

"These measures are in response to requests from competitors who are not committed to the development of the sector in our country and who are seeking to maintain subsidies and regulatory privileges from the IFT to cover the productive investments required to compete effectively," América Móvil said.

According to latest preliminary IFT data from 2Q24, América Móvil led the fixed internet services segment with 10.4mn Telmex, 529,784 Telnor and 6.1mn Grupo Televisa lines, followed by competitors Totalplay and Megacable with 5mn each and smaller operators.

Telcel led the mobile segment with 83.3mn lines, followed by Movistar with 22.9mn and AT&T with 22mn. Virtual mobile operators are also part of the market. Walmart's Bait reported 13.7mn users.

In total, Mexico registered 148mn mobile lines.

América Móvil also accounted for 54.6% of sector revenues in January-September, according to calculations by consultancy The CIU.