Since the covid-19 pandemic began, the company registered a decrease in its subscriber base. From the fourth quarter of 2020 to the same period last year, Telmex has lost a total of 1.1 million consumers, at a time when the company has lowered its rate of investment for the improvement and expansion of its fiber optic network. In the last three years, the injection of capital has decreased by 53.1%, according to the company’s financial data.
The downward trend in capital injection by Telmex is a strategy contrary to that of the sector. Fixed service companies such as megacable and izzy They have accelerated their investments to improve their fiber optic network and meet a greater need for connectivity.
From October to December 2022, Megacable allocated 3,955 million pesos to its network; Izzi injected 140.1 million dollars (around 2,564 million pesos), while Telmex invested 2,570 million pesos.
The low investment of the company begins to be reflected in its products. Data from the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) as of the third quarter of 2022 indicate that Telmex’s fixed internet service leads the complaints in that category. Of the 3,723 registered claims, the company concentrated 2,817; the main reason was failures in their internet service, followed by charges, balances and bonuses.
Jorge Moreno Loza, telecommunications lawyer and head of the Expanzione office, explains that the company has stopped investing due to asymmetric measures that they were imposed on him since 2014, and that have not allowed him to grow adequately; however, the capital decrease has also become a ‘weapon’ to put pressure on the regulator and remove measurements with which it currently operates.
“The company has decided to restore or reinvent its investment parameters by placing them in other regions where it operates and this clearly has a direct effect on national users, and a loss of competitiveness in the market because Telecommunications is a business where investments have a lot to do with the quality of service”, assures Moreno Loza.
For this year, América Móvil will invest 8.2 billion dollars, and part of the money, without specifying the amount, will be used to increase its fiber optic network in Mexico in an attempt to improve its service and retain its user base.
According to the CEO of the company, Telmex has migrated 67% of its clients from a copper network to a fiber optic network as part of its strategy for two years, and in 2023 it will seek to increase this percentage.