Mexico’s telecoms market seeks new signal

Mexico’s telecoms sector, for so long largely the preserve of Carlos Slim’s América Móvil, is in flux.

Both Slim and Ricardo Salinas, who bought out television powerhouse Televisa’s share in Iusacell, the country’s third-biggest mobile operator, are looking for new investment. Spain’s Telefónica, the second-biggest mobile company in Mexico with about a 20 percent market share, hopes the merry-go-round will help it boost its muscle in a country where revenues lag most of its businesses elsewhere in Latin America. The shake-out is the result of tough new telecoms regulations intended to end América Móvil’s stranglehold on the sector. Slim’s fixed-line Telmex service has 80 percent market share while his mobile business Telcel has 70 percent. The acid test looms: will real competition result once the dust settles? That could depend on how Slim, who has vowed to slice off a chunk of assets in his domestic empire, structures the planned sale.