The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT) served sixty calendar days as the new regulator of the telecommunications and broadcasting sector in Mexico, after the extinction of the now deceased Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), which occurred on the night of October 16.
The dimension of CRT work It is understood when it is known that telecommunications and radio broadcasting make up a sector that makes up 4% of Mexico’s GDP year after year, with employment for almost 300,000 families and communications of 185 million fixed and mobile accesses of video, voice and data services, through cellular coverage that reaches 93% of the population and also thanks to more than 650,000 kilometers of network laid throughout the country by the efforts of the entire industry.
He telecommunications and broadcasting sector It is very relevant for Mexican society, since its data for the year 2024, of 35.4 billion dollars, exceeded the GDP of Macau for the year 2023 and also the GDP of Paraguay in 2020.
In sixty days, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has worked to approve 230 agreements or issues, and some of them are very thorny for the sector or have a direct impact on consumers; and this, despite the fact that the CRT has worked thirty effective days for the industry, if we deduct the time it used for the installation of its plenary session of five commissioners and for the approval of its internal guidelines, in addition to the 15 business days that it also took to suspend procedures.
The good: A working CRT
The first stenographic versions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission They say that the new sector regulator has followed up on files that the IFT was working on, both in broadcasting and telecommunications; while some cases of economic competition were taken up by the new National Antitrust Commission (CNA).
In its active days, the CRT approved, above all, interconnection rates. So far it has published that it has held 7 total plenary sessions, between its plenary installation day, and four extraordinary sessions and two ordinary sessions.
Among all of them, the approval of retail rates for telecommunications stands out in telecommunications. Megacable Holdingsin its capacity as an agent with substantial market power and the controversial cell phone registry; Furthermore, the work of the CRT on Telcel rates for the rest of the market is reported. In broadcasting, the documents tell data about the reference offer of Televisa’s passive infrastructure as the predominant one in the sector and there the case of an agent located in San Luis Potosí that will soon also be news in the press stands out.
Thus, the CRT begins its regulatory work in a context in which it has yet to earn the trust of the industry as an independent and collegiate technical regulator.
Two former presidents of telecommunications regulators stated that the CRT is beginning its life as a regulator in Mexico, so it is now when it must chart its own path and differentiate from IFT to achieve glory like that regulator did.
Mony de Swaan and Pedro Huichalaf are two figures who a decade ago headed telecommunications regulatory bodies with a legal framework with similarities to those of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission today; and that despite operating bodies with few powers, both achieved milestones with their institutions that still benefit consumers today.
Pedro Huichalaf directed the Chile Subtel between 2014 and 2016; and Mony de Swaan, the Cofetel of Mexico from 2010 to 2013.
De Swaan is considered the father of analog blackoutthe federal program that Cofetel promoted to recover spectrum that would later be used in 4.5G mobile services, while in another way it allowed the plurality of television channels to increase. Mony de Swaan was also one of the first officials who dared to state that in Mexico there should be a preponderant economic agent, even though his Cofetel did not have the weapons to regulate such a company. Of the figure of the Red Compartida de Altán Redes that today is used by some 28 million Mexicans, De Swaan is also the father.
Huichalaf promoted the crystallization of a backbone network in the south of the continent and then opened the discussion on the market and connectivity opportunities that the secondary spectrum market presented for Chile; and due to his prestige as a mediator, he was called by the Chilean government in 2023 to find a common point between the differences that existed in the industry regarding wholesale rates in the Chilean mobile sector.
“In a market as punctual and dynamic as the telecommunications market, there is a logic of urgency for things to move forward, but you have to have a little patience (…) Institutions, even with a different scaffolding, can work and have to work, independently of the governments in power; thus, if public policies continue for the medium to long term and with clarity in their work towards the outside, there can be success; for now, we will have to wait for these new institutions to begin to develop, for them to work, and then they can be more critical of their resolutions, that for them their path today is to differentiate themselves,” said Huichalaf.
“The CRT is going through a defining moment. Beyond its formal installation and the publication of its Regulations – which undoubtedly constitutes a relevant milestone -, the first months of operation will be key to understanding what type of regulator it will be in practice. At the moment we have received conflicting versions,” said Mony de Swaan.
The bad: Did the CRT skid?
The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has been working for sixty days, a time that, perhaps, would still be insufficient to nourish the information banks built by the Federal Telecommunications Institute, which have been a reference point for constructing photographs of the sector in Mexico.
In two months, the CRT has not provided basic data such as those on Portability, nor has it fully recovered the work of the IFT in the feeding the public registry of concessionsnor announced in public who will officially be the official who will direct the CRT’s work on spectrum, when this regulator is days away from announcing its radio spectrum plan for 5G services.
It is also unknown if the CRT will ever publish the stenographic versions of the sessions of October 3 and 8, the last ones held by the IFT, who will no longer be able to do so. There are also no quarterly updates that tell the state of the fixed and mobile markets in the Telecommunications Information Bank.
And two weeks after its confirmation, the CRT released a statement in which it wanted to argue that the radio spectrum is 7% cheaper in Mexico compared to international prices, a statement that left Mexico’s new regulatory authority in a bad light in WhatsApp groups where several telecommunications ministers from Latin America communicate, because if the content of the CRT statement were accurate, Telcel would not complain about spectrum prices and AT&T and Movistar they would not have announced their withdrawal from the country for that reason.
Simply put, the CRT would not have been cautious with that statement, Mony de Swaan stated:
“We had a strange methodological note that questions the technical autonomy of the regulator and completely separates it from a long tradition in which Mexican regulators have always fought for the reduction of the spectrum price and the review of an absurd annual rights payment scheme in our country.”
Among the unfortunate ones, the CRT would also have already slipped in its times: On the morning of this Friday, December 19, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission announced in the Official Gazette of the Federation that it was suspending the deadlines and terms of procedures and procedures, from December 12 to 19. The problem is that he communicated it after the suspension began, so, perhaps, there would be a violation of the Administrative Procedure Law.
The ugly: What does the CRT listen to?
The first sixty days of the CRT will be marked by the approval of the new mobile telephone registry, but not by the speed, but by the parsimonious argument of the plenary session of commissioners on the publication in public consultation and final approval of this initiative, which means that from the first week of January, users of cellular services in Mexico must associate their cell line with their CURP, when in the public consultation the companies requested more time to correctly accredit this entire new process; time that he did dedicate to public and indigenous radio with several days of conferences.
“We have the publication of the Guidelines for the Identification of Mobile Telephone Lines where, clearly, the CRT made an effort to listen to and endorse the genuine concerns of the operators. Unfortunately the environment does not seem to be in favor of the CRT gaining time. The questions inherent to the reform that gives rise to it, the possible structural changes that seem to be coming and the urgent need for coordination with the CNA to recover time in the digital markets will require a fully established regulator, its own personality and rigor. technical,” De Swaan said.
In this section there is also the controversial issue of the former IFT workers who have requested payment of their settlements, which this Friday, December 19, would total 38 million pesos for 89 former employees ranging from assistant directors to drivers.
It is not clear if the latter is indifference, said Mony de Swaan: “It is a labor conflict that sends messages of insensitivity towards the market and towards the commission officials themselves.”
“What type of regulator will the CRT be? It will be defined more clearly in the coming months, as the long list of pending issues that have accumulated during the transition period is resolved. It is striking, for example, that the publication of sectoral statistics has been completely stopped, which limits market analysis and informed decision-making.”
