Major Changes Coming for Mexico Telecommunications

Mexico is moving towards the biggest overhaul of the telecommunications sector in more than two decades, as legislation has passed the Senate authorizing a number of changes to increase competition in the mobile and fixed communications markets, as well as television broadcasting.

The new rules will mandate lower termination charges for competitors completing calls to Telmex customers. 

But the legislation also eases restrictions in investment by non-Mexican firms, and is expected to allow new TV networks to be created. 

Telefonica is expected to be among the firms that takes advantage of the regulatory changes to expand its market share in the Mexican market. 

On the other hand, observers also expect that  América Móvil, owner of Telmex, will make a move into the broadcast television as well. 

The legislation also does allow Internet service providers to provide quality of service mechanisms for their access services. 

In other words, "best effort" access can be supplemented by access with quality of service features such as provided by content delivery networks in the wide area network.