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 Technology News | March 2005 
Mexico's Telecommunications Sector Expanded 22.6% In 2004
 Dow Jones
 Mexico City - Mexico's telecommunications industry expanded last year at its fastest rate since 2000, and the outlook remains positive for 2005, the country's telecommunications regulator said recently.
The Federal Telecommunications Commission, or Cofetel, said the sector grew 22.6% in 2004, compared with 4.4% growth in the overall economy.
Mexico ended 2004 with 18.7 million fixed phone lines, or 10.6% more than a year earlier - most of which are controlled by Telefonos de Mexico SA (TMX). The number of mobile phone users grew 27.9% to 38.5 million, led by America Movil ( AMX) unit Telcel with 28.9 million, and followed by Telefonica Moviles (TEM) with 5.6 million.
Cofetel attributed the sector expansion to economic growth in Mexico and the U.S., lower rates for communications services, the introduction of new services, and regulatory actions.
The commission said calling rates fell for both prepaid and postpaid mobile service, as well as for fixed-line local, domestic and international long- distance services. Promotions and new technology contributed to the cheaper rates.
Cofetel said mobile minutes of use rose 44.4% from 2003, while incoming international long distance grew 30.5%, outgoing international long distance 8.4%, domestic long distance 3.2% and local fixed-line traffic 10.2%.
Trunking services grew 21.6% from the previous year, but paging fell 31.2%. Cable TV use grew 10.3%, and satellite TV grew 13.3%.
"For 2005 the outlook for the sector remains encouraging," Cofetel said.
The agency noted interest among telecommunications companies to expand into new cities, and a tendency to focus on data transmission and broadband services.
Cofetel said it expects the 10% reduction this year in fixed-to-mobile charges to generate additional call traffic, and that the extension of the "calling-party-pays" system to domestic long distance will also favor more usage.
The commission, which initially expected the extension of calling-party-pays to take effect in March or April, said this is now expected by July. |
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