Mexico-TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGULATION

摘要

The monopoly of Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), the incumbent operator that was privatised between 1990 and 1994, was ended in August 1996 when the conditions of the Federal Telecommunications Law of June 1995 were enforced, This law allowed the entry of competitors into the local and long-distance markets in Mexico. Although full competition began in January 1997, Telmex remains the dominant operator as network buildout by some new entrants has been slow (or non-existent) and there has been a series of accusations, legal rulings, and complaints in the sector, most notably over interconnection between Telmex and the competitive long-distance operators. The main complaints have come from Avantel, backed by WorldCom, and Alestra, backed by AT&T. The US operators petitioned the US government to intervene, claiming that Telmex engages in anti-competitive behaviour, that the regulator Cofetel has consistently failed to ensure that Telmex does not abuse its dominant position, and that Mexico has failed to open up its telecommunications market to effective competition, as agreed with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in February 1997. The US government submitted a formal protest to the WTO in July 2000. In September 2000, Cofetel issued a new resolution on dominant operators with a number of requirements for Telmex in the areas of tariffs, quality of service, and provision of information. In December 2000, Telmex, Alestra, and Avantel reached an agreement on interconnection rates for 2001, as well as the back-payment of fees and interest by the two competitors to Telmex, the dropping of all outstanding legal suits, and the cracking down on the illegal routing of international calls. In May 2001, Telmex and Avantel signed further agreements for the gradual reduction of international connection fees to 2003. Negotiations continued and were completed with other carriers during 2001 and into early-2002.