Mexico - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses

The Mexican mobile market continues to undergo considerable changes in the wake of regulatory efforts to curb the market dominance of Telcel: the regulator in early 2018 obliged the parent company América Móvil to spin off its fixed business from its mobile unit. Such measures encouraged the entry of AT&T into the market, with its acquisition of Nextel Mexico and Iusacell, and have also resulted in the greater competitive role being played by MVNOs. Telefonia Group, operating as Movistar, sold its units in Guatemala and El Salvador in March 2019 and has also looked at selling its business in Mexico, which could be valued at up to 1.9 billion.

The regulator has also endeavoured to encourage competition through issuing additional spectrum. However, despite these efforts only AT&T Mexico and Telcel were eligible to bid for AWS licences at auction in February 2016, while in mid-2018 only AT&T and Movistar were awarded spectrum in the 2.5GHz band.

In January 2017 the ALTAN consortium was contracted to manage a wholesale mobile network for 20 years, aimed at delivering mobile voice and data to underserved areas. The network was made available for use in March 2018, initially covering about a third of the population and concentrated on Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Puebla, Michoacan, Colima, Nayarit, Aguascalientes and Guanajuato. By mid-2018 two MVNOs had launched mobile services on the wholesale network, and Virgin Mobile was looking to switch to it from its existing host network.

This report provides an overview of Mexico's mobile market, including a range statistical data as well as subscriber forecasts.

Key Developments:

Telefónica sets up an IoT laboratory in Mexico, AT&T completes NB-IoT network across Mexico;
Regulator makes 600MHz spectrum available for 5G services in Mexico City area;
Regulator awards 2.5GHz spectrum to AT&T and Movistar;
700MHz wholesale network becomes available for telcos;
Payments processor PROSA teams up with Gemalto to provide m-payment services;
América Móvil develops m-payment platform with banks;
Report update includes the regulators market data updates to December 2018, telcos financial and operating data to Q1 2019, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report include:

Telcel (América Móvil), AT&T Mexico (Iusacell, Nextel Mexico), Movistar (Telefónica Mexico), Televisa, Globalstar, Unefón, Virgin Mobile, Weex, AT&T Mexico.