American Movil has been issued a $68.8 million (1.3 billion pesos) fine by Mexico’s regulator for failing to share information about its infrastructure.
The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) argued that America Movil was legally required to provide information relating to the availability, set-up and location of its infrastructure. The operator has hit back, claiming that the investigation into its subsidiary Telephones del Noroeste was unlawful and querying the size of the fine, which amounts to 6% of the unit’s annual revenues.
In a statement made to Reuters, America Movil said: “This arbitrary, illegal and disproportionate fine affects certainty in a sector that requires significant investments for its development and evolution.”
To comply with Mexico’s anti-monopoly regulation, America Movil is obliged to allow its competitors access to its infrastructure, thereby fostering competition by increasing service availability and driving down consumer tariffs. IFT argues that Noroeste had failed to submit requested information on infrastructure, including poles and wells, by the deadline of 30th September 2017.
America Movil is the largest operator in Mexico, with 75 million subscribers. Second and third placed operators Movistar (operated by Telefonica) and AT&T Mexico respectively have 25.8 million and 12.5 million subscribers. The smaller operators last year entered a network sharing arrangement to compete more effectively with America Movil.
