Three of Mexico's largest competitive telecom players (Televisa, Spain's Telefonica and Megacable) have found a way around Carlos Slim's Telmex network monopoly by launching a cooperative bid for a fiber cable being auctioned off by Mexico's government.
The trio, which would own an equal stake in the venture, confirmed late last week that they will jointly bid on the fiber lines being sold off by Mexico's utility monopoly Comision Federal de Electricidad. Up till now, competitive providers seeking routes to transport long-distance voice traffic had little choice but to rent capacity from Telmex.
Megacable CEO Enrique Yamuni said in late February before the three companies formalized their union that gaining access to the cable would help level the playing field in Mexico's telecom services market.
"We can have much better efficiency at a much lower cost individually for each of the participants, with the same benefit of promoting competition in Mexico," Megacable's Chief Executive Officer Enrique Yamuni said when the companies were discussing a joint bid in the dark fiber auction.
For more:
- Reuters has this article
- Bloomberg has this perspective
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