Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones

The IFT Plenary approves the call to tender and bases of two geostationary orbital positions

• It will be the first allocation of orbital positions in the country since 2005
• Those interested in participating in this tender must obtain favorable opinion from the Institute with regard to economic competition
• IFT agrees to submit for public consultation the project to adapt the Policy for the Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television between July 18th and August 8th
• IFT issues the Regulatory Provisions to which the procedures are subject that the Institute resolves in the field of economic competition, derived from the Federal Antitrust Law
• The President Commissioner approves to turn antitrust issues that apply to other members of the Plenary, on a rotational basis, to serve as Speaker Commissioners

During an extraordinary session held yesterday, the Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) approved the Call to Tender and Bases of the public bidding process for granting concessions to occupy the geostationary 113 ° West and 116.8 ° West orbital positions and use the associated extended C and Ku frequency bands, as well as the emission rights and reception signals for the provision of satellite capacity for the fixed-satellite service.

The orbital positions to be tendered have coverage in the national territory, and are for commercial  satellite services, such as dedicated data links, DTH and links between corporate.

Those interested in participating in this tender must obtain favorable opinion from the IFT in economic competition, which must be presented in accordance with the corresponding instructions, which also was approved yesterday by the Plenary.

The Bases, Appendices and Annexes, as well as the instructions will be available for consultation and free download on the IFT website from July 18th this year.

With this bidding process, IFT promotes the participation of more competitors in the satellite market, which will result in greater investment, technological development, and better quality and price in the provision of services.

Additionally, in order to adapt the administrative arrangements with respect to the transition to Digital Terrestrial Television (Televisión Digital Terrestre, TDT) to be consistent with the Nineteenth transitory article of the Decree which is issued by the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law, published on July 14th this year in the Federal Official Gazette, the IFT Plenary resolved to submit for public consultation the draft entitled "Policy for the Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television", prepared by the Radio and Television Systems Unit.

This exercise will allow to know the comments, proposals and opinions of stakeholders and society in general about the content of the draft Policy, which will be evaluated by the Institute and, where appropriate, incorporated into the document to strengthen it. The Institute will publish on its website a document that addresses in general the comments, views and proposals received within the period of consultation, specifying which ones resulted in adjustments to the draft Policy, which in turn is subject to consideration by the Plenary.

The public consultation will take place in the period between July 18th and August 8th of 2014, and both the draft policy and a format for the submission of contributions will be available to interested parties, which will be received, in writing, through the IFT webpage at any time during the period of consultation, or at the Filing Office of the Institute on July 18th, as well as in the period covered from August 4th to 8th this year.

Once the public consultation closes, the Radio and Television Systems Unit, within the next 10 working days, shall submit the draft deemed result of this process to consideration of the Plenary, to be adopted and published the "Policy for the Transition to Digital Terrestrial Television" in the Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación, DOF).

Also in the broadcasting field, in strict compliance to record number R.A. 21/2014, from relief trial 44/2014 promoted by Luis Carlos Mendiola Codina, the IFT Plenary voided the provisions the resolution adopted in its 1st Extraordinary Session, held on November 8th, 2013, as well as the consequences arising from it.

Additionally, upon the entry into force of the new Federal Antitrust Law on July 7th, the Rules derived from the previous norm are ineffective until this has been repealed and, in use of the powers conferred by article 28 of the Constitution and article 12 of this Law, the IFT Plenary agreed to issue the Regulatory Provisions to which the procedures will be subject that this regulator resolves with regard to economic competition.

With these provisions, the IFT offers legal certainty to economic operators regulated given that this legal instrument is necessary to achieve an effective implementation of the procedures provided for in the Federal Antitrust Law and that this regulatory body effectively meets its function of authority in the field of economic competition in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors.

The Federal Antitrust Law, while envisaging to carry out public consultation for the issuance of these Provisions, also includes the possibility of exempting from it in the case of situations that so require.

For this reason, it is necessary to issue the Regulatory Provisions, in order to have the legal tool to effectively fulfill its role of authority in the field of economic competition in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors and exercise the incremental powers not provided for in the repealed law.

In addition, in its commitment to transparency and participation of the citizens, the Institute will shortly carry out public consultation on the Regulatory Provisions on economic competition, in order to receive the views and comments of stakeholders that will allow to strengthen the document and issue a new one in a period not exceeding six months from the entry into force of the Federal Antitrust Law, which will occur on January 7th, 2015.

The Plenary also approved that the President Commissioner, in exercise of his powers, turn the issues of economic competition in the assumptions that thus correspond to other Commissioners, which will act as Speaker Commissioners, on a rotational basis, in accordance with articles 83 fraction VI and 106 fraction IV of the Federal Antitrust Law. The strict order will be the responsibility of, as stipulated by law, the appointment of Commissioners, and that should be understood in accordance with the period of their appointment, so it shall be in the following form: Luis Fernando Borjón Figueroa, followed by Ernesto Estrada González, Adriana Sofía Labardini Inzunza, María Elena Estavillo Flores, Mario Germán Fromow Rangel and Adolfo Cuevas Teja, starting equally and again, once each cycle terminates.