Newsletter
Telefonica SA is one of the biggest and most important telecommunication companies in Latin America, owner of the popular carrier Movistar, and present in over 21 countries. Telefonica is without a doubt, a major influence in the economic status of numerous Latin American countries; which include Mexico, a region where over the past few months, the telecommunications industry in general has underwent some rather major changes, most of which have negatively affected the companies inside the country. Although Telefonica (Movistar) is one of the largest carriers in Mexico, the company has always lived under the shadow of the Mexican communications giant, America Movil; owned by business genius Carlos Slim. America Movil, has a complete dominance in all the different areas of telecommunications, with over 289.4 million wireless subscribers, 34.3 million landlines, 22.6 million broadband accesses and 21.5 million PayTV subscribers.
The obvious monopolistic practices of America Movil have been recently addressed by its competitors, which have began to create partnerships in order to gain a larger share of the telecom market in Mexico. Today, Telefonica SA announced that in order to further expand in the country, the company is completely open to any sort of deal or agreement with its rivals in Mexico, including AT&T. Telefonica is certainly desperate to improve its business in Mexico, and according to the company’s CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, Telefonica has the obligation to explore any possibilities to make this happen. Even if it means signing a new deal with any of its competitors to make use of their tower units to improve the company’s network range and quality. “We still have a lot of work to do in Mexico, but for the first time we have elements … we can’t intend to grow in Mexico without having a good network and we are light-years away from it. So, what has to be expected from us in Mexico is strong investments, and potentially agreements to access towers or for combined creation of infrastructure”, Pallete stated.
Currently, the Mexican telecom industry is in great dispute, after US carrier AT&T shifted the way the market was settled by purchasing two of the country’s most important carriers, Nextel and Iusacell. This rapid shift created a great opportunity for other carriers to gain a better position and expand in the region, and as Telefonica is showing, this will be achieved by any means necessary.