Mexico (country regulation overview)

Fixed-line penetration in Mexico has remained around 17-18% since 2005. Despite growing competition, the fixed market is still dominated by the incumbent, Telmex. A positive development in terms of competition was the designation of Telmex as a dominant operator in the fixed market by the Mexican anti-trust authority (the CFC) in 2009. This decision allows Cofetel, the Mexican NRA, to impose on Telmex regulations specific to dominant operators such as interconnection obligations, which it had avoided in the past. The enforcement of interconnection rates continues to be one of Mexico’s main issues. Despite the recent progress with the release of the new interconnection plan in February 2009 and the dominance designation, the format of interconnection charges still remains to be decided.

In the mobile market, the four mobile operators have broadly maintained their market shares in the last two years. The auction of the 1.9GHz band has finally been completed and the process of auctioning the 1.7-2.1GHz band for 3G use has been initiated: both auctions were in the pipeline since 2008. Cofetel should ensure it does not take as long auctioning the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands, which have entered its agenda for the 2010-2011 period, given the suitability of the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands for LTE and the need for operators to plan ahead for the deployment of LTE.