Mexico to conduct antitrust probe of telephone industry

MEXICO TO CONDUCT ANTITRUST PROBE OF TELEPHONE INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News]
Mexico's antitrust regulators expect to start an investigation into the nation's fixed-line telephone industry by early next year, a second challenge to the companies that made billionaire Carlos Slim one of the world's richest people. Eduardo Perez Motta, president of the country's Federal Competition Commission, said Tuesday that the agency was reviewing complaints filed this month by Spanish phone company Telefonica against Slim's Telefonos de Mexico before starting the probe. The investigation would follow an initiative announced Monday to assess fees that mobile-phone carriers charge rivals for completing calls to their customers, Perez Motta said. Slim's America Movil controls three-quarters of Mexico's wireless market. The probes pose a threat to America Movil and to Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, which controls about 90% of Mexico's phone lines. Perez Motta is stepping up efforts to rein in Slim's market power 17 years after he bought Telmex, a former national phone monopoly.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-telmex28nov28,1,10535...
(requires registration)