Mexico: IFT approves new companies following ‘functional separation’ of Telmex-Telnor

Mexico’s telecommunications regulator, the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, approved the statutes for the new companies that will emerge after the separation of Telmex-Telnor, the country’s dominant actor in telephone services. The companies will be called UMT and UMNOR after the separation process, which was ordered on February 27.

The statutes establish that these new companies “will not provide services to the end user, but only to the operators” and that “they will regulate the structure and functioning of their decision-making, administration and corporate governance bodies” during the transition period that will end on December 31 this year.

The functional separation of Telmex-Telnor, the giant that controlled more than 60% of fixed telephony lines in the country, was the result of the telecommunications reform enacted by the out-going administration and the biannual revision of asymmetric regulations imposed by the IFT.

The process is scheduled to end at the start of 2020, according to the IFT. However, the telephone worker’s union has expressed its opposition to this separation, since the labor rights of thousands of Telmex workers may be affected.

Full Content: Proceso

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