Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones

The Plenary approves the Organic Statute of the Federal Telecommunications Institute

• The scheme contemplates the faculties and responsibilities of the different areas in the IFT, as well as from their control system, required to take care of the constitutional mandates that were conferred.
• The IFT is integrated with the Plenary, the Economic Competition Unit, the Regulatory Policy Unit, the Industry Services Unit, the Radio and TV Systems Unit, the Supervision and Verification Unit and the Legal Unit.

On a first session, in exercise of the faculty conferred in article 28 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, the Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) unanimously approved the Organic Statute with which the regulator and authority will operate in the following months in the matter of economic competition of the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors, in order to comply with the constitutional mandates as well as the subjects and proceedings that are received, analyzed, processed and resolved every day.

Given the need that the IFT has administrative units equipped with competition to act and to fulfill constitutional mandates immediately, the Plenary approved the Organic Statute, which takes advantage of the administrative structure of the extinct Federal Telecommunications Commission while it issues a new statute result of a deep analysis of the internal processes and the secondary legislation that the Congress of the Union issues.

In this sense, it emphasizes the following:

• The Plenary and the administrative units of the IFT incorporate the necessary faculties to carry out the functions of the Institute that derive from their constitutional mandates.
• Broadcasting and telecommunication services are considered public and, therefore, the rights of the users must be considered.
• The Economic Competition Unit is created to take care of the faculties of the Institute in this matter with respect to the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors and the strict separation between the authorities in charge of the investigation stage and the resolution in the procedures followed in judgment form, is ensured, pursuant to the Constitution.
• The possibility of public consultations in the subjects that are competition with the Institute are considered, and the analysis of the considered regulatory impact of the administrative dispositions of general character that may be issued.
• Due to the concern the IFT has about transparency and access to public information, the Organic Statute includes the possibility of the creation of a Transparency Council, that will be the internal organ of the Institute that will take care of and solve the recourses of review which are interposed by individuals against the resolutions of the Information Committee, pursuant to the Federal Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information.
• Also, according to the commitment that the IFT has to public accountability, the Organic Statute establishes the attributions of the Internal Comptroller, which will be exerted by the officials assigned to the area, until the holder of this Comptroller by the House of Representatives is appointed, in exercise of their constitutional powers.

The members of the Plenary considered that with this Statute, certainty and legal security is granted for its performance as the regulating body for telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as in the matter of economic competition in these sectors, while beginning the works on the institutional design that the IFT must have in the future.