Mexico's Communication Commission vows to open up telecommunications industry [if Slim will allow]

Miami Herald / El Universal joint venture: MexicoNews.com.mx ^ | April 18th, 2007 | El Universal Wire Services

[Shuttle Shucker]

Mexico's Communications and Transport Secretary Luis Téllez (SCT.gob.mx) told Federal Communications (COFETEL.gob.mx) members and industry representatives that greater competition (in the telecommunications sector) would allow more Mexicans access to opportunities provided by new technologies. "Letting this new technology remain in just a few selective hands is something we do not want and are not going to allow," Téllez said. Teléfonos de México SA, or Telmex, owned by the world´s second-richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim, controls more than 90 percent of the nation´s fixed phone lines, while his América Móvil SA provides about 70 percent of cell-phone service in Mexico. Telmex also dominates Internet service, with 1.8 million high-speed accounts (in a country with only 2.9 million accounts servicing 107 million people). In television, Grupo Televisa and TV Azteca control roughly 70 percent and 30 percent of the market, respectively. Cable operators enjoy regional pay-TV monopolies, and a small number of companies control the radio industry. Tackling monopolies in various industries was a key campaign promise of President Felipe Calderón, who took office on Dec. 1 with a pledge to create jobs and improve economic productivity. Téllez had previously accused Cofetel of bowing to powerful telecoms companies and not looking out for consumers´ interests. In remarks published in the Financial Times, he said the regulatory agency had not moved fast enough to open access to Telmex´s fixed-line network and had been too lenient with tariffs.

[Shuttle Shucker]

How many more illegal immigrants will we have to continue subsidizing up here, while our telecom companies down in Mexico continue having to endure such corruption, losing their shirts in the process like MCI, Verizon and Qualcomm all did before bailing out?

[Shuttle Shucker]

Can you believe how Mexico is still one of the few developed countries still NOT authorizing companies to use the WiMax wireless broadband spectrum to offer (scarce) telecommunications services in Mexico? Notice how Mexico remains completely absent from this list of countries allowing WiMax to fortify their economies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deployed_WiMAX_networks

But wireless broadband technologies such as WiMax, xMax and Ultra Spectral Modulation would make Carlos Slim’s phone monopoly less dominant, in both the land-line and the cellphone sectors.

[martin_fierro]

Mexico's Communication Commission vows to open up telecommunications industry [if Slim will allow]

Hey now.

[CougarGA7]

TS! Will you leave them alone for pete sake!

[Shuttle Shucker]

How much longer before Carlos Slim overtakes Bill Gates as Forbes’ wealthiest person on Earth?

[Tijeras_Slim]

More importantly, how much longer will he take to fall for my “long lost nephew” e-mails?

[CougarGA7]

Stop opening your e-mails with Hey Papa would be a good start.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Why isn’t our own USTR in Washington D.C. using the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round to finally abolish Mexico’s requirement that landline telecommunications services be no more than 49% foreign-owned? Could it have to do with how AT&T owns a hefty percentage of Carlos Slim’s TelMex?

[Tijeras_Slim]

So let it be written, so let it be done... < /yul brynner>

[martin_fierro]

PLEASE SLIM

DON'T HURT 'EM

[Shuttle Shucker]

Here's Slim, working his mischief with those who could otherwise help the USA pursue USTR remedies and alleviate immigration tensions: http://www.achievement.org/newsletter/2004/013_small.jpg

[Shuttle Shucker]

Predictions? They say “talk’s cheap”...especially from government.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Here’s a new exposé on the culprit, Carlos Slim:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1819366/posts

[Shuttle Shucker]

Can you imagine how far ahead Slim would be of Gates in Forbes’ rankings IF Forbes also counted the holdings that Slim has passed on to his 6 children, over which he still undoubtedly has control?

[Shuttle Shucker]

It would seem that President Felipe Calderón is siding with the concept of competition in the telco sector, but I don’t see too many details in this wrap-up of his presentation today:

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/419546.html

[Shuttle Shucker]

Can you believe they still haven’t resolved the “triple play” matter? The longer they take, the more entrenched Slim’s monopoly gets to become...

http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/24367.html
Wire services
El Universal
Miércoles 25 de abril de 2007

“U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday that Mexicans would benefit from more competition in critical industries such as telecommunications and banking. “I believe in competition because oligopoly power, monopoly power ... is never a good thing,” Paulson said as he visited with Mexican government officials and business people from small and medium- sized companies. Several critical Mexican industries are controlled by just one or two major companies, and President Felipe Calderón has made encouraging more competition one of his main goals for generating jobs and economic growth. His administration is developing “triple play” rules that would allow phone companies to offer television services and cable companies to provide phone services. Billionaire Carlos Slim dominates the sector through Teléfonos de México, or Telmex, which owns more than 90 percent of fixed phone lines, and América Móvil, which controls about 75 percent of cell phone service.”