“You cannot have equity in the operation of the market if you do not have equity in the distribution of these inputs, and it is something that is happening in terms of spectrum,” warns Ernesto Piedras, general director of The Ciu consultancy. “In addition, Mexico has approximately 35-40% of the spectrum that the International Telecommunications Union recommends as the international standard, and now the operators are returning part of this input.”
This year, the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) has launched the consultation for the IFT-12 tender, which will seek to sell suitable bands for 5G. However, the recent return of spectrum to the State by AT&T calls into question whether the company chaired by Mónica Aspe will seek to be awarded new spectrum, otherwise, the only player that will acquire more bands will be América Móvil. This will give you a greater advantage over your competitors in terms of infrastructure and for next generation services.
Within the Public Consultation, which the IFT enabled, on the effectiveness of the asymmetric measures that have been imposed on América Móvil since 2014, some of the comments that have been published indicate that the company controlled by Carlos Slim, in addition to prohibiting his entry to restricted television, he must be ‘blocked’ from tenders to prevent him from “accumulating more radio spectrum, directly and indirectly”.
Experts consulted by Expansion They agree that stopping the awarding of more spectrum to América Móvil could be part of its new asymmetric measures, at the same time that the participation of more competitors in the tenders should be encouraged to balance the distribution of the infrastructure.
“But it’s not just that América Móvil doesn’t participate, but rather how to get the rest of the operators to participate in the spectrum tenders,” says Jorge Moreno Loza, telecommunications lawyer and head of the Expanzione office.
Specialists say that the predominance of América Móvil in the mobile sector is associated with the fact that the telecommunications regulatory body has not “effectively” monitored that Carlos Slim’s company complies fully with the asymmetric measures that were imposed on it.
Last week, analysts recall, Telmex, a subsidiary of América Móvil, “was saved” from an infraction for failing to disclose information about its infrastructure in 2017, and whose failure forced the regulator to impose a fine on the company which would have easily exceeded 20,000 million pesos.
IFT explained that even with the evidence and defenses provided to the case file, it was not possible to enter into the analysis of the merits of the conduct finally charged to the company, nor to conclude on the non-compliance and, therefore, sanction the company.
“I am of the idea that the best way to operate (a company) is not by punishing the operators, but if an operator fails to comply with the legal framework that is imposed, then they are subject to a sanction. But here (in the case of Telmex) it (the IFT) simply erases that sanction with a stroke of the pen. So it does become very suspicious and worrying for the industry,” says Piedras.
In the first three years of application of preponderance measures there were important advances: by 2017 the company controlled by Carlos Slim went from 66.1% to 60.1% of market share, a reduction of six percentage points. Analysts then estimated that it would only take eight years to break even in the telecommunications market.
But since that first measurement was made, the effectiveness of the measures to reduce the dominance of América Móvil has slowed: between 2017 and 2021, the level of participation only fell by 4.3 percentage points.
The specialists consider that although the companies that operate in the sector will not withdraw from the country, it will be very complex for new competitors to arrive. But the main risk is that there is no real market regulation.
“If the rules are not applied, there will be no competition and today the IFT is losing control of the market… And the main risk is that the IFT becomes just a spectator,” Moreno warns. Crockery.