Comisión Reguladora de Telecomunicaciones

El Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones informa respecto al pago de la contraprestación por la segunda cadena nacional de televisión radiodifundida a cargo de Grupo Radio Centro, S.A.B. de C.V.

• GRUPO RADIO CENTRO, S.A.B. DE C.V no efectuó el pago de la contraprestación en la Licitación No. IFT-1.

GRUPO RADIO CENTRO, S.A.B. DE C.V, Participante Ganador en la Licitación No. IFT-1, anunció que no efectuó el pago previsto en las Bases de Licitación para el otorgamiento de los títulos de concesión.

Lo anterior traerá como consecuencia que en términos de las propias Bases de Licitación quede sin efectos el fallo y se declare desierta la Licitación respecto de la Cadena Nacional de la cual fue declarado Participante Ganador GRUPO RADIO CENTRO, S.A.B. DE C.V. Asimismo, el Instituto procederá a la ejecución de la garantía de seriedad por $415,000,000 (cuatrocientos quince millones de pesos) otorgada por dicho grupo durante el proceso, en términos de lo dispuesto por las propias Bases de Licitación.

La decisión de no efectuar el pago respecto de las ofertas presentadas por los postores en el proceso, corresponde exclusivamente a éstos, en tanto que al Instituto le corresponde aplicar las consecuencias jurídicas previstas en las Bases de Licitación, publicadas desde el 7 de marzo de 2014.

En cumplimiento de su mandato de velar por el desarrollo eficiente de los sectores de telecomunicaciones y radiodifusión, así como el aprovechamiento eficiente del espectro radioeléctrico, el Instituto analizará en breve las acciones a seguir respecto de las bandas de frecuencias que han quedado disponibles.

The IFT releases its first activities report for the third quarter of the year

• Starts the first phase of a study of radio spectrum occupancy to monitor their use in various areas of the country

• Emits new Policy on Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television (Televisión Digital Terrestre, TDT)

• Modifies the bidding to reduce the time and to its conclusion to be within the first quarter of 2015

• Make 104 inspections and verification operations, which led to the beginning of 28 procedures for imposing sanctions

• Publish the new Organic Statute and performs the institutional redesign of its structure according to the functions of the new regulatory framework

In the third quarter, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) undertook various measures to promote better conditions in the provision of telecommunications and broadcasting services in favor of competition, and therefore, users. This, in compliance with its legal mandate and attachment to its 2014 Annual Work Program.

The IFT implemented and tracked the specific measures to be met by companies that were determined as Preponderant Economic Agents (PEA) in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors. With these obligations, is prevented to affect competition for these industries and promotes users to receive services under better conditions.

In this regard, the regulatory body approved the various formats of short message that Telcel should send to their users in prepaid and postpaid schemes, through which local service tariffs will be informed, long distance, the price per minute to frequently used numbers, SMS rates¹ and Megabytes, and the e-mail address and toll-free number where information may be consulted about rates applicable to its operations. The company will start sending these messages later this October 29th.

Regarding the PEA in broadcasting, the Institute decided the final terms and conditions of the Tender Offer Infrastructure, which should be ready to apply from the first day of January 2015.

Another major actions of IFT in the third quarter was the modification of the bases and call for tender frequencies to form two new digital television broadcast networks, among whose is notably a change to the dates of the process to reduce the time and completion is within the first quarter of 2015.

In the third quarter, the Institute issued the ruling of the International Public Tender for the acquisition of the "Technical System Testing the Radio Spectrum" (Sistema de Comprobación Técnica del Espectro Radioeléctrico), which will allow the expansion of the National Radio Monitoring Network (Red Nacional de Radiomonitoreo, RENAR) of the Institute, which primordial aim is to monitor the spectrum in various parts of Mexico.

For this process 20 transportable mobile stations were acquired, as well as an independent control station for controlling these, which will complement the team that currently has the IFT, composed of a Regional Control Centre, an attended fixed station and ten mobile units of radio monitoring.

With such equipment radio monitoring activities and monitoring use of radio spectrum will be strengthened; work on location signals are also conducted in strategic locations nationwide.

Moreover, as a result of the entry into force of the new Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law, the IFT issued a new Organic Statute which involved a redesign of its institutional structure, which led to the creation of new areas such as the Center of Studies, the General Coordination of User Policy, Strategic Planning, International Affairs and Regulatory Improvement as well as the Radio Spectrum Unit and Media and Audiovisual Content Unit.

Meanwhile, the Regulatory Policy Unit, the Concessions and Services Unit (formerly Services to the Industry Unit), and Compliance Unit (formerly Monitoring and Verification Unit), were redesigned with a convergent approach, which will allow greater specialization in the design and implementation of regulatory policy addressed to the sectors of telecommunications and broadcasting.

With regard to the projects implemented in coordination with the Federal Government, the Plenary of the Institute issued the new Policy for Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television (Televisión Digital Terrestre, TDT) which provides guidelines to be followed by concessionaires and license holders of this service to conclude the transmission of analog television signals on or before December 31, 2015.

For actions monitoring and verification by the Institute to ensure that concessionaires comply with their obligations under the concession agreements and other legal systems, a total of 104 inspections / verification are performed. As a result, 28 administrative procedures for imposing sanctions were initiated and 76 are in the process of opinion.

In terms of economic competition, the IFT took eight investigations for monopolistic practices, initiated proceedings for declaration of substantial market power, which is under investigation, by the Investigating Authority, and issued 34 opinions regarding concessionaires operations.

The Antitrust Unit substantiate various methods among which there are some that resulted in sanctions, as the corresponding to Corporativo Vasco de Quiroga, S.A. de C.V., for breach of the provisions of the conditions to which the authorization of a notified concentration was clamped with a fine of 53 million 838 thousand pesos and on Teléfonos de México, S.A.B. de C.V., with a penalty for 49 million 320 thousand pesos for the commission of relative monopolistic practice in the market for long distance call termination service in its public telecommunications network.

In the quarter reported, the IFT received a total of 178 requests for access to information, of which 67% had the access, 22% were refused for the information was reserved or non-existent, 9% were granted public versions were delivered and 2% was determined to discard requests.

The Transparency Council met on five occasions in the period from July to September in four review petitions that were presented at different times, an appeal was dismissed in May and two more presented in June were discontinued. Of the four review resources resolved, two were resolved in a favorable direction for the appellants, instructing the relevant areas to give access to the requested information.

The full text of the quarterly report is available on the website of the Institute in the following link:

https://www.ift.org.mx/iftweb/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/

3er_Informe_Trimestral_P_IFT_151014_363.pdf

¹The third quarterly report covers activities from July 1° to 25 September 2014.

IFT Plenary decided to submit for public consultation the Draft of General Guidelines for Granting Telecommunications and Broadcasting Concessions

• There will also be a consultation to indigenous peoples on the Guidelines for the granting of concessions, by three regional informational workshops and three regional consultative workshops

• Will be translated an extract with the most important points into 10 indigenous languages

• Resolved interconnection terms not agreed by origination, termination and transitservices between Alestra and companies Telmex and Telnor

At an extraordinary meeting held yesterday, the Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) decided to submit to public inspection the Draft of General Guidelines to grant the unique concession and the granting of radio spectrum and orbital resources as well as a consultation with indigenous peoples about the Guidelines for granting concessions.

The public consultation will be available for a period of 20 working days from the working day following its publication in the web site of the Institute.

Meanwhile, the consultation to indigenous peoples will be done through three regional informational workshops and three regional consultative workshops. The comments and input received will be analyzed and rated by a Technical Committee of the Institute, the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, CDI) and the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas, INALI). To this end, there will be an extract of the Draft translated into 10 indigenous languages.

The dissemination of the results of that inquiry will be through a document to provide general answers to shares, opinions and comments, which will be published on the IFT website, he will inform the people consulted and will sent to the CDI so that is disseminated through different media (boroughs, coordination centers, Indigenous Culture Radio Broadcasting System, [Sistema de Radiodifusoras Culturales Indigenistas] among others).

Similarly, once the guidelines are issued, a manual will be developed whose purpose will be to describe the procedure in a simple and practical way for obtaining concessions of indigenous social use.

Moreover, the Plenary of the IFT in a special meeting held on April 7th, resolved the not agreed interconnection conditions by origination services, termination and transit between Alestra, S. de R.L. de C.V. and the companies Teléfonos de México S.A.B. de C.V. Teléfonos de Noreste, S.A. de C.V., for 2013.

The Institute identified the following interconnection rates for public networks of the three companies in the period from January 1° to December 31 of that year:

The calculation of the considerations that Alestra must pay to Telmex will be made based Telnor the actual duration of calls, unrounded the next minute.

IFT Plenary resolved to change the 2015 Use and Development of Frecuency Bands Annual Program

• Approves also to open for public consultation the adoption Proposal for the segmentation for frequencies band 2500 - 2690 MHz scheme

• Also agrees to submit for public consultation the draft 0for change the numerical portability rules published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on November 12, 2014, to create conditions to facilitate further the right of any user to change the telephone company

• Approved to grant the concession tittle to Cadena Tres I, S.A. de C.V., having met all requirements in the bidding of frequencies for broadcasted television services

• Determine interconnection terms not agreed between NII Digital and Radiomóvil Dipsa

At an extraordinary meeting held yesterday, the Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT), decided to modify the 2015 Use and Development of the Frequency Bands Annual Program, after having completed last February 16, the deadline for receipt by parties other applications including frequency bands and geographic coverage additional or different from those originally included in the document published on December 30, 2014 in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

Thus, in telecommunication matters, the 2015 Program has amended the concessioning of 80 MHz of spectrum for the deployment of International Mobile Telecommunications services in the band 1.7 / 2.1 GHz and 10 MHz for capacity provision service for private radio communication. The program also considers 26 MHz of spectrum for operation of specialized radio communication systems for public concessions use, and also includes various segments of spectrum at the regional level for the provision of mobile communication services for social use concessions, reaching up in some regions a total of 10 MHz.

With regard to the broadcasting service, the 2015 program provides an amendment for the concessioning of 191 frequencies for commercial use, 14 frequencies for public use and 97 of social use for radio broadcasting service on FM and 69 frequencies commercial use, 2 frequencies for public use and 3 frequencies for social use for the sound broadcasting service in modulated amplitude in various regions of the country. In addition, they made available the spectral reserves for community grants and indigenous social use referred to in Article 90 of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law.

It is important to note that requests for inclusion of new frequency bands and geographical coverage do not involve themselves a request to obtain a concession, or a grant of a concession title or a preference for obtaining the same, only they were received for, if necessary, to be considered in the referral Program.

The 2015 program as amended, will be published in the coming days in the Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación, DOF) and the website of the Institute.

Furthermore, it was agreed to submit for public consultation the adoption segmentation scheme Proposal for the frequencies band 2500-2690 MHz, according to ITU-R M.1036 Recommendation of the International Telecommunication Union, for its use in wireless access services of broadband.

This exercise of citizen participation will take place over a period of 20 working days from the publication of the draft in the IFT web site, so that in that period are received the views and comments to the proposal. As part of the process, within 30 working days after the conclusion of this consultation, the Radio Spectrum Unit will propose to the Plenary of the Institute, The Segmentation Adoption Agreement for the 2500-2690 MHz frequency band.

Moreover, the Plenary approved to grant the concession title of radio spectrum and only concession, both for commercial use, in favor of Cadena Tres I, S.A. de C.V., having complied with all the requirements of the bidding of frequencies for broadcasted television services. As promptly reported last March 11, the Plenary of IFT issued the decision to declare as the winner company in this process that includes 123 areas coverage that form a national television network.

During the session, also was agreed to submit for public inspection the Amendment draft of Number Portability Rules published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on 12 November 2014, based on the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law. These Rules, issued by the Institute in a timely manner in accordance with the legal mandate, have led to a quicker portability process for users. Changes undergoing to public consultation derived from analysis of the implementation of the new legal framework by the industry and aim to make streamline processes applicable, in order to facilitate and expedite further exercise of right of each user to change of telephone company bearing the same number phone.

It is important to note that the content of the document to the consideration to the general public, has nothing to do with the issues that are the subject of the constitutional controversy promoted by the Senate before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation on Portability Rules.

On the other hand, the Plenary resolved no interconnection conditions not agreed between NII Digital, S. de R.L. de C.V. (Nextel) and Radiomóvil Dipsa, S.A. de C.V. (Telcel), stablishing the following:

• The interconnection rate that Telcel must pay Nextel for termination services of Local service for mobile users under the modality "calling party pays" from March 26 to December 31, 2015 will be $ 0.2505 pesos per interconnection minute.

• For the period from January 1°, 2015 to March 25, 2015, being the termination service of local service in mobile users under the "calling party pays" the fee that the parties have agreed in 2014 should be extended.

• The interconnection rate that Nextel must pay Telcel for transit services, from January 1° to December 31, 2015 will be $ 0.006246 pesos M.N. per minute.

• Both companies calculate the consideration to be paid, based on the actual call duration, unrounded minute.