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 Business News | November 2006 
Mexican Telecoms in New 'Calling-Party-Pays' Dispute
 MarketWatch
Several Mexican fixed-line carriers have filed complaints against mobile operators due to technical problems associated with the implementation over the weekend of calling-party-pays for long-distance calls.
In a joint statement issued Sunday, fixed-line carriers Axtel (AXTEL.MX), Avantel, Maxcom and Alestra said the country's four mobile operators have failed to complete "an important number" of fixed-to-mobile long-distance calls.
The carriers said they will ask the Federal Telecommunications Commission, or Cofetel, and consumer rights agency Profeco, to apply economic and administrative sanctions against mobile operators.
"We are considering and evaluating additional legal action to restore the normal flow of telecommunications," the companies said.
America Movil (AMX), Mexico's top mobile operator with over 40.7 million subscribers at its Telcel unit, hasn't been formally notified of the complaints, a spokeswoman said.
Long-distance calling-party-pays went into effect Saturday. Under the billing convention, someone calling from a fixed line to a mobile phone is charged the entire cost of the call. Previously, mobile users were charged to receive long-distance calls even if they were in their home area.
Last month, Mexico's largest fixed-line company Telefonos de Mexico (TMX) and mobile operators America Movil, Telefonica Moviles (TEF), Grupo Iusacell (CEL.MX) and Unefon (UNEFON.MX) agreed to implement the system for long-distance calls.
The dissenting carriers, however, obtained court rulings exempting them from the new billing agreement, claiming that fixed-to-mobile interconnection rates already leave them at a disadvantage to cellphone operators under the existing calling-party-pays system for local calls.
Under the latest calling-party-pays agreement, long-distance operators pay mobile operators an interconnection fee of 1.54 pesos (14 U.S. cents) a minute, which is the same rate as for local fixed-to-mobile calls. Mobile operators, meanwhile, pay fixed-line companies MXN0.11 a minute for mobile-to-fixed calls.
Another point of contention is that several mobile operators, including Iusacell and Telcel, are warning their clients through voice recordings that they will be billed to receive long-distance calls from carriers not participating in calling-party-pays. According to those carriers, that has discouraged long-distance traffic.
"Their argument is we shouldn't inform our clients they are going to be billed to receive those calls, which is questionable to say the least," said Carlos Hirsch, Iusacell director of regulatory affairs in a telephone interview.
"We support calling-party-pays because it benefits mobile clients," he said, adding that minor interconnection problems observed in the first 24 hours of calling-party-pays have been resolved. |
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