| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Mexico May Not Extend Date for Mobile Users to Register Phones
 Adriana Lopez Caraveo & Crayton Harrison - Bloomberg
go to original
April 08, 2010
Mexico’s government may decide not to extend its deadline for mobile-phone companies to register users, forcing America Movil SAB and rivals to suspend service for more than a third of their customers, a lawmaker said.
Eight of the 14 members of the Senate’s communications committee plan to block a proposal to add a year to the deadline, committee member Rogelio Rueda said. Carriers have until April 10 to add users to the list, aimed at preventing criminals from using mobile phones in extortion and kidnapping schemes.
America Movil and rivals such as Telefonica SA will face “chaos” without the extension because they would lose revenue from almost 30 million customers, said Canek Vazquez, author of the proposal. Wireless carriers, which began collecting subscriber names with the government about a year ago, have obtained personal information for only about 65 percent of Mexican users.
Members of the National Action Party and the Party of the Democratic Revolution on the communications committee agreed to block the deadline extension, Rueda said in an interview. Rueda and Vazquez, a deputy in the lower house of Congress, are members of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, which hasn’t officially endorsed the proposal.
The registry is intended to help authorities trace calls to criminals, who used mobile phones in about 95 percent of extortions in 2008, according to the proposal Congress approved that year to create the database.
Going to Court?
A federal judge has thrown out America Movil’s legal challenge against the law, the Reforma newspaper reported on April 6. The company has 10 days to challenge the ruling, the newspaper said.
Mexican law allows companies to ask courts to delay government regulations by claiming that the rule will infringe their rights, a tactic used by America Movil in the past.
A spokeswoman for Mexico City-based America Movil declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Telefonica, Mexico’s second- largest wireless carrier, didn’t respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment.
America Movil controls 71 percent of the Mexican mobile- phone market, while Telefonica, based in Madrid, has 21 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Grupo Iusacell SA and NII Holdings Inc. provide service to the rest of Mexico’s subscribers.
To contact the reporters on this story: Adriana Lopez Caraveo in Mexico City at adrianalopez(at)bloomberg.net; Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at tharrison5(at)bloomberg.net.
|
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us