“A license will only be required for the deployment, installation, construction, modification or expansion of active infrastructure and/or passive infrastructure for telecommunications and/or radio broadcasting, as well as electricity supply.”
The regulation contemplates infractions for the suspension of rearrangement works, from infractions of 2,000 to 10,000 measurement and update units (UMA), to the partial or total closure of the work, or the revocation of the license granted.
The industry has ensured that removing the entire network that is currently woven into the poles, to reinstall it in the subsoil, requires opening ducts, covering them and paving, among other processes. This can take months and even years. And during that time there may be disconnections or intermittences due to network migration.
What does the IFT say?
Due to the complexity of the works that the burying of the cabling will imply, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has decided to file a Constitutional Controversy lawsuit, against various provisions of the Regulation for the improvement of the urban environment of Nuevo León.
The telecommunications regulatory body ensures that the Nuevo León regulation invades regulatory powers of the Institute, such as restricting the installation of telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructure for the provision of public services. The only one empowered to do so is the IFT.
“This may constitute possible barriers to competition that prevent or distort the process of competition and free competition in the provision of telecommunications services in light of the Federal Law on Economic Competition,” the IFT document states.
Nuevo León is not the only state seeking to force telecommunications operators to reorganize their network. The Guadalajara municipal government has also issued regulations to bury the telecommunications infrastructure.
The National Chamber of the Electronic, Telecommunications and Information Technology Industry (Canieti) promoted an amparo lawsuit in December against the municipal government of Guadalajara, since the organization must seek the participation of all the actors involved, both of government as an industry, to establish agreements that do not harm connectivity or user access.
Burying the infrastructure would cost almost 60% of the total investments earmarked for telecommunications in 2021, consultancy The Ciu said in November.
Mexico City is another of the entities where initiatives have been promoted to rearrange the wiring, however, Canieti has reached agreements with mayors such as Álvaro Obregón to start the process.