Telcel will not be able to sell blocked phones due to new IFT regulations

With the measures, the agency considers that the mobile and fixed market will have greater incentives to become more competitive, after, for example, a consumer will be able to sign a contract for the sale of cellular equipment or telephone service without established deadlines with Telcel, making simpler that at a certain moment you can easily migrate to a new company.

The regulatory criteria that América Móvil must now meet are the result of an exhaustive analysis derived from the Public Consultation issued by the Institute on effectiveness in terms of competition from January 4 to March 30, 2023.

“The third review seeks to strengthen four fundamental axes to generate balance in the aforementioned markets, such as: the free choice of users about their telecommunications operator, access to wholesale services, access to distribution channels and the strengthening of the mechanisms supervision and verification,” the IFT said in a press release.

What benefits will it bring to users?

Telcel, as a subsidiary of América Móvil, is the company with the largest number of lines in the country with 84.1 million, however, this has also resulted in it being the operator with the highest service complaints and equipment blockages. . But with the new regulatory measures of the IFT, history could change.

Within the new regulation, the Institute has requested that the company, through its subsidiary Telcel, deliver unlocked phones, without distinction, between the prepaid or postpaid segments. With this measure, users will not have to purchase additional equipment when they want to change operators, allowing them to freely choose their telecommunications service provider without having to take on additional procedures such as requesting unlocking.

América Móvil may not condition and/or associate the granting of bonuses, discounts or benefits in any way, between the marketing price of the terminal equipment or other charges considered in the purchase-sale contract.

The company controlled by Carlos Slim will be prohibited from establishing mandatory deadlines or minimum deadlines in telecommunications service contracts. This measure allows users who wish to change providers to do so whenever they decide and without having to wait for the end of any period.

Another measure will be that Telcel will not be able to contact end users who decided to port from its network during the next 60 calendar days from the execution of the portability. This measure guarantees the exercise of this right by which consumers can change operators while maintaining the same telephone number.

How does it benefit the industry?

One of the great conflicts within the telecommunications industry is the difficulty for operators to access América Móvil’s infrastructure, this as part of its asymmetric measures.

But the IFT has imposed on the telecommunications giant to provide the Wholesale Visiting User Service to dealers who request it for a new period of up to 5 years. This is intended to reduce the asymmetries in the coverage of the networks of the different mobile operators and guarantees the continuity of services to end users.

To this measure, the regulator has incorporated the possibility of changing the regulatory scheme of wholesale rates for access and shared use of towers and/or sites to avoid distortions to competition.

Rate Replicability

América Móvil’s competitors have accused on several occasions the difficulty of replicating their rates, so the Institute may now have decided to implement replicability tests on individual offers of mobile services, in order to prevent potential strategies that prevent its competitors contract wholesale services or profitably replicate the retail rates of Carlos Slim’s company.