UPDATE: Mexico Antitrust Regulator Responds To Telcel Over $1 Billion Fine
2011年4月28日 - 7:34AM
Dow Jones News
Mexico's antitrust regulator responded Wednesday to comments by
America Movil SAB (AMX.MX, AMX) unit Telcel against a $1 billion
fine that the competition watchdog imposed on the grounds that the
mobile operator uses its market weight and high interconnection
fees to displace competitors.
Eduardo Perez Motta, president of the Federal Competition
Commission, or CFC, said in an emailed statement that, by charging
competitors high rates to terminate calls on its network, Telcel
pushes their costs up and maintains its ability to charge high
rates to its own customers.
Telcel said Tuesday that it will appeal the ruling and fine,
which it described as "arbitrary, biased, opportunistic and
excessive."
The company, which has about 70% of the country's 91 million
mobile users, said it has never been investigated or faced
sanctions for practices of the kind for which it is being fined,
and "so there is no repeat offense," which the commission cited in
imposing the maximum penalty allowed.
Perez Motta said the size of the fine was based on the size of
the estimated damage to consumers--$6 billion a year--caused by
interconnection rates. "The fine is big because the damage is big,"
he said.
The CFC said there are 41 disagreements against interconnection
rates filed with the telecommunications regulator Cofetel, and that
Telcel has systematically taken court action against Cofetel's
interconnection rulings. Cofetel recently set a rate of 39 Mexican
cents per minute between Telcel and fixed-line operator
Alestra.
Telcel's legal director, Alejandro Cantu, said in a telephone
interview that the fact there are challenges to the rates confirm
that Telcel doesn't set the rate, and defended the company's access
to legal recourse when it disagrees with an act of the
authorities.
"We have exercised that right ... but I wouldn't say
systematically," he said.
Telcel defends its ability to offer cheaper calls to its
customers within its own network as part of a market where there is
competition. The company's 70% of mobile subscribers in the country
is an average, and not evenly distributed, Cantu said. In the more
lucrative postpaid market in Mexico City, for example, its share is
under 50%, and in some marginal areas it's 100%, he added.
A coalition of smaller phone companies has joined forces in
efforts to bring down Telcel's interconnection fees from their
current 95 Mexican cents (8 U.S. cents) per minute. That fee was
agreed by Telcel, Telmex, and Telefonica SA (TEF), but many
operators have rejected it as too high.
The antitrust fine also comes as America Movil and other
companies controlled by businessman Carlos Slim are in dispute with
the country's main television broadcasters--Grupo Televisa SAB (TV,
TLEVISA.MX) and TV Azteca SAB (AZTECA.MX)--over advertising rates
and mobile interconnection.
Perez Motta said it was "tempting, but unsustainable" to
interpret the fine as politically motivated or a move in favor of
the broadcasters.
He said the CFC supports allowing Telefonos de Mexico SAB (TMX,
TELMEX.MX), which is 60% owned by America Movil, to compete in the
pay-television market, and will back any plans for a third
nationwide broadcast network. Currently, Televisa and TV Azteca
split the free-to-air television broadcast market about 70%-30%.
Telmex, meanwhile, is still seeking government authorization to add
television to its services.
The CFC also insisted that Telcel is a repeat offender, citing a
previous fine against the company for "relative monopoly
practices," although these practices weren't identical to the
current case.
Telcel has 30 days to appeal to the CFC, and the commission then
has 60 days to respond. After that the case could be taken to the
courts, with no set time for a resolution.
-By Anthony Harrup, Dow Jones Newswires; (5255) 5980-5176,
anthony.harrup@dowjones.com
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