Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, one of the wealthiest men in the world (photo: Wikipedia)
The Mexican Lower House passed a bill which modifies the country’s telecommunications law. The bill was introduced by President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration and affects some of Mexico’s industry giants, such as Carlos Slim’s América Móvil.
América Móvil, which has a market share of 70% in the mobile sector, will be forced to share part of its network with its competitors. It must also unblock mobile phones, speed up the process to change companies to under 24 hours, and eliminate national long distance charges.
As the bill was being debated, América Móvil announced its intention to sell part of the company in order to reduce its market share and avoid the restrictions imposed on it by the reform. The company could sell up to 30% of its assets, for a value of US$15bn, to shake off the tag of ‘prevailing economic agent’. The move, however, is yet to be approved by the Federal Institute of Telecommunications.
If approved, the divestment could allow América Móvil to offer telecommunications services which is currently unable to sell. “We want to offer our clients the famous ‘triple play’, the three services that are precisely voice, data, and video, that is, cable TV,” said Arturo Elías Ayub, Slim’s son-in-law and spokesman for the company.
América Móvil has 292m clients in 26 countries, 35% of which are in Mexico. Slim, its owner, is one of the richest men in the world.
The reform also affects television giant Televisa, which will have to offer its television contents to cable operators free of charge and share parts of its infrastructure with other television companies.The bill, which had already been approved by the Senate, was passed on Wednesday after a 20-hour debate by an overwhelming majority of 318 votes against 107. It must now be signed off by President Peña Nieto.
The post Mexico: Congress Approves Reforms to Telecommunications Law appeared first on The Argentina Independent.
