Lawmakers pass tougher rules on dominant companies
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY – The lower house of Mexico’s Congress approved tough restrictions on dominant companies in the country’s telephone and television sectors early Wednesday after 20 hours of debate and discussion.
The new rules must still be signed into law, but they have already forced the nation’s leading telephone carrier to offer to sell off part of its business.
The lower house passed the enabling legislation on a 318-107 vote; it imposes fee limits and infrastructure-sharing requirements on any company that controls more than half the market in sectors like telephones, Internet or television. The rules were already passed by the Senate, but must still be signed into law by President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose party supports the measures. They give teeth to Mexico’s 2013 telecom reforms.
Billionaire Carlos Slim’s América Móvil phone company announced Tuesday that it will sell off unspecified assets and businesses to get the company below the 50 percent limit.
Under the telecom reform rules, companies judged to have “preponderant” market positions face limits on how much and who they can charge, what fields they can enter and what kind of exclusivity arrangements they can make.
Slim’s mobile and fixed-line telephone carriers — which control 70 and 80 percent of their respective markets — would have to provide free interconnection for competing carriers, could not charge long-distance fees and would have to share infrastructure with competitors.
The rules also include bans on exclusive broadcast rights to sporting events. Mexico is poised to auction off rights for new television networks soon.
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