Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones

The Federal Telecommunications Institute and the Federal Supreme Court of Justice hold a seminar on the rights of audiences

• The seminar will be oriented to judges and members of the regulatory authorities on telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as to the general public
• It will be inaugurated next October 28th at the alternate venue of the Federal Supreme Court of Justice (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, SCJN)
• Mexican and foreign experts will attend the seminar, such as Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), (Relator Especial para la Libertad de Expresión de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, CIDH)

In order to disseminate the contents and scope of the rights of audiences among judges and the general public interested in this topic, the Federal Supreme Court of Justice (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, SCJN) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) will hold a Seminar on the Rights of Audiences led by distinguished Mexican and foreign experts.

The rights of audiences of radio and television services were incorporated to the Mexican Constitution to Reform the Article 6 of the Constitution, so that the Mexican State must guarantee the exercise of such rights according to the principles of freedom of expression, access to information and the rights of children.

Therefore, given the impact of the content broadcasted by radio and television among different sectors of the population, the participation in this Seminar of authorities and members of the Mexican judiciary, of regulatory authorities from the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors, and of the society in general, is extremely relevant.

This Seminar will have the presence of distinguished personalities, such as Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Martín Cave, an expert on economic regulation and competition rights, and Eve Salomon, expert in the study of regulatory bodies in charge of regulating mass media, among others.

The Seminar will also have the participation of Magistrates and Court Clerks of the SCJN, representatives of civil organizations, governmental and academic bodies, as well as companies of the telecommunications and broadcasting sector.

The Seminar will be divided in 5 panels: 1) Rights of Audiences: New Human Rights? 2) Guarantor State: The challenges of the IFT and the Federal Executive as guaranteeing agents of freedom of expression, access to information, and the rights of children; 3) Horizontal Justiciability of Human Rights and Mass Media; 4) Jurisdictional Guarantee for Vulnerable Groups, and 5) Jurisdictional Control of Plurality in Audiovisual Contents.

The Seminar will be opened Tuesday, October 28th at the auditorium of SCJN alternate venue. The ceremony will be led by officers of the IFT and the SCJN. The same day the first session will be held and subsequent sessions will be held every Tuesday in November.

The first panel will be integrated by Martin Becerra, research professor at the University of Quilmes, Argentina; Guillermo Orozco, research professor of the University of Guadalajara and an expert on the reception of media and audiovisual literacy campaigns; Erick Huerta, representative of the organization Comunicación para el Desarrollo y Redes por la Diversidad, Equidad y Sustentabilidad A.C.; Clara Luz Álvarez, researcher in telecommunications and information technologies, and Cynthia Ottaviano, Ombudswoman in Argentina. The moderator will be Jean Claude Tron Petit, Magistrate of the 1st Collegiate Court on Administrative Matters Specialized in Economic Competition, Broadcasting and Telecommunications.

For further information, refer to the following link: https://www.ift.org.mx/iftweb/2014/10/cartel-delseminario-derecho-de-las-audiencias/

The Plenary of the IFT approves the rates offered by TELCEL to its customers as a Preponderant Economic Agent

• The Plenary establishes the SMS formats sent by the Company to its users to inform them about the applicable service rate when they are abroad,
• It appointed Ricardo Salgado Perrilliat as Head of the Investigating Authority,
• The Plenary approved the Quarterly Report of Activities for July-September.

In a regular meeting the Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de

Telecomunicaciones, IFT) authorized the rates for the services offered by Radiomóvil Dipsa, S.A. de

C.V. (Telcel) to its users.

Telcel, as Preponderant Economic Agent (Agente económico preponderante, AEP) in the telecommunications sector, is subject to comply with the obligations on rates, which must be approved by this regulatory body, under the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law.

According to these regulations the Company may not set differentiated charges to its users for any call received from the same network or from a competitor, and it must refrain from establishing commercial charges or conditions, as regards quality or price, to its users for the services originating and terminating within its network different to those applied for services originated from or terminated at the network of another carrier.

The rates approved by the Plenary fulfill these provisions under Article 208 of the Law, as well as the replicability criterion established in the measures imposed on the AEPs in the telecommunications sector which must have interconnection fees higher than those charged to their competitors for the traffic termination service.

Moreover, the Plenary approved the free text message (SMS) that Telcel must send to its users with a prepaid and postpaid service with mixed plans, informing them about the applicable service rate when they are abroad.

It was established that such short message shall specify in pesos the rate for voice, data and message services, and it will include a toll-free number and a website where users may get more information.

This SMS format must be implemented by Telcel no later than 60 business days after being notified of the Agreement.

Furthermore, as it was timely informed, on July 9th of this year the Plenary of the IFT approved the text message format that Telcel must send to its users when they make airtime prepayments in Mexico; those messages shall include detailed information on the deposited amount, the cumulative balance and the applicable basic rates for local call services, as well as for long-distance calls, SMS and megabytes for access to Internet.

In this regard, as the Company incorporated new prepayment modalities consisting of contracting service packages for seasons, it requested the approval of amendments to broaden the contents of such In this regard, and since the company joined its commercial offer new prepaid plans involving the procurement of service packages for seasons, requested the approval of amendments to broaden the content of these messages, so adjustments were made to clarity message content to the user.

Telcel must implement this measure not later than October 29th, in accordance with the deadline in the resolution of July 9th.

These measures are part of the obligations that the Preponderant Economic Agent must fulfill, so as to deliver clear information to subscribers on the charges for invoiced services and products.

The Plenary also appointed Ricardo Salgado Perrilliat as head of the Investigating Authority, a body of the IFT with technical and managerial autonomy to solve on its operations and resolutions, and charged with submitting evidence in relation to investigations on economic competition matters.

Salgado Perrilliat has a degree in Law from La Salle University and has postgraduate studies in Administrative, Bank, Fiscal, Economic-Corporate and Financial Law from the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico, and he is candidate to receive a PhD degree in Law from such university.

Salgado Perrilliat has wide experience in the public sector where he has held positions such as the Office of Legal Affairs in the Federal Institute of Access to Public Information and Data Protection (Dirección General de Asuntos Jurídicos del Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública y Protección de Datos, IFAI), Head of the Legal Affairs Office of the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP), Director General of Litigious Affairs of the Federal Competition

Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia, CFC), and General Coordinator of the Federal Regulatory Improvement Commission (Comisión Federal de Mejora Regulatoria, COFEMER), among other positions.

Furthermore, the Plenary approved the Quarterly Report of Activities presented by the IFT for July-September of 2014, which will be sent to the Congress of the Union and to the Head of the Executive Power in compliance with Article 28, 20th paragraph, section VIII of the Mexican Constitution.

The Report will be available for consultation in the following days at the IFT website: www.ift.org.mx

 The SCT and the IFT sign agreements for a “Shared Network” in the 700 MHZ band

• The Shared Network will start operations by the end of 2018 and, together with the Backbone Network, will offer better conditions of quality, price and coverage in telecommunication services for all mexicans.
• The IFT and the SCT signed framework and specific agreements formalizing their cooperation and establish the terms and activities for the development of the Backbone Network and the Shared Network.
• The agreements set forth the project schedules, which in the case of the Shared Network include a call for bids of a Public-Private Association responsible for deploying, operating and market wholesale services.

The Government of Mexico, through the Ministry of Communications and Transport (Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, SCT) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) signed framework and specific agreements to fulfill the Constitutional Mandate that the Shared Network starts operations no later than by 2018.

The Minister of the SCT, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza and the President Commissioner of the IFT, Gabriel Contreras Saldívar, signed the Framework Agreement of Inter-institutional Cooperation and the Specific Agreements for the projects: “Backbone Network” and “Shared Network” establishing the bases for the coordination between both institutions, as well as the applicable schedules for these two important projects.

Ruiz Esparza said that signing these agreements represents the first step of many others that will be undertaken by this agency to make a reality the access to information and communication technologies for the Mexican population. “If an immediate and significant benefit can have the Mexican society, is precisely this connectivity.”

With this, the Federal Executive and the IFT will achieve that the Shared Network commences operations by 2018, offering better services and a wider coverage in telecommunications to the Mexican population, with higher standards than the average of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Regarding the Backbone Network, the Minister of Communications and Transports said the aim is to strengthen and expand the network of fiber optic Federal Electricity Commission to make it a highly available network that can meet the needs of the shared network services and other mobile operators.

On the Backbone Network project, the Minister emphasized that the Federal Executive will follow the regulations established by the IFT, under the guidelines that this autonomous agency may issue according to the provisions of the Constitutional Reform on Telecommunications.

He also explained that the Shared Network will be destined exclusively to market wholesale telecommunications capacity and services through concessionaires or trade companies. This project will foster the right of access to information and communication technologies, and particularly to telecommunications, including access to broadband Internet. To this end, the State will establish and promote effective competition conditions to provide such services.

The President Commissioner of the IFT pointed out that given a growing demand for connectivity which requires substantial investments in infrastructure and the use of such a scarce resource as the radio spectrum, the Constitution ordered the installation of a wholesale public shared network as a tool that will promote competition and access to broadband services.

The President Commissioner added that, as set forth in the Constitution, the coordination of all parties involved is necessary within their respective scopes to guarantee compliance with the constitutional mandates, and that therefore, the agreements signed today formalize such coordination by establishing activities and dates for compliance.

In his speech, the Undersecretary of Communications, José Ignacio Peralta, emphasized the relevance of this IFT Project and pointed out that the first result of this coordinated effort was the definition of “Model and Use” of the 700 MHz Band, a basis to appraise the spectrum, and a proposal included in the 2015 economic package sent by the Federal Executive to House of Representatives for its discussion and approval.

José Ignacio Peralta added that “with the launch of the Shared Network Project, the field tests in which six of the main telecommunication equipment manufacturers will take part in the same number of sites with different characteristics, we will have a real performance environment of the Network in different scenarios and under diverse requirements.” The Assistant Minister of Communications explained that these field tests will put the technology to the test under actual conditions, in terms of the methodology selected by the Ministry and the IFT.

The Shared Network of wholesale mobile services represents an investment of approximately $10 billion U.S. Dollars over the next 10 years to be developed by a Public-Private Association. It will promote competition in the telecommunications area, widen coverage, increase penetration of services, and it will be in operation by 2018.

This event was also attended by the Commissioners of the IFT: María Elena Estavillo Flores, Adriana Sofía Labardini Inzunza, Mario Germán Fromow Rangel, Ernesto Estrada González and Luis Fernando Borjón Figueroa, as well as by Ricardo Márquez Blas, Head of the Public Security Information Unit of the National Security Commission, the Coordinator of the Information and Knowledge Society, Mónica Aspe Bernal, and officials of the Federal Electricity Commission.

The Plenary of IFT approves to submit to public consultation the number portability Regulations Draft Project

• The Plenary of IFT seeks to eliminate requirements that could delay or impede users to exert their right to keep their telephone number when they subscribe to another network carrier
• The Plenary has solved on four interconnection disagreements among telecommunications public networks concession holders

The Plenary of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) in its XIV regular meeting approved a public consultation to the Draft Agreement by which the Number Portability Regulations are issued and the Fundamental Numbering Technical Plan and the Fundamental Signaling Technical Plan are modified, first published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on June 21^st of 1996.

This public consultation makes enhances transparency and promotes the participation of the public in the processes to issue general provisions by the IFT; furthermore, the comments made in this consultation will reinforce the decision-making process of the IFT, which will include the comments and opinions of academics, members of the industry, experts, and the society at large on the document submitted to consultation, so that the resulting Draft Project is duly examined by the Plenary of the IFT for its eventual approval and subsequent publication.

With the issuing of the Portability Regulations the IFT will fully comply with the provisions of the

Transitory Thirty-Eighth Article of the issuing Decree of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law, which sets forth that the obligation of this regulatory body is to issue, within the sixty business days following the effective date of such Law the necessary administrative rules to eliminate requirements which may delay or impede number portability.

Thus, the Regulations Draft Project which will be available to all interested parties for consultation on the website of the IFT for a period of 10 (ten) business days from its publication, establishes rules to ensure an effective portability within a period not exceeding 24 hours and promotes the formalities for the portability of phone numbers so this process can be made via electronic means, so that users freely and effectively exercise their right to choose the service provider of choice, keeping their phone number.

To have an appropriate implementation of number portability under the terms of the Regulations Draft Project, it is also necessary to modify the Fundamental Numbering Technical Plan and the Fundamental Signaling Technical Plan to incorporate the technical parameters required to have a successful implementation of the new applicable regulations.

The Plenary of the IFT also solved four interconnection disagreements among telecommunications public networks concession holders:

1) The interconnection fee that Megacable Comunicaciones de México, S.A. de C.V. shall pay to Radiomóvil Dipsa, S.A. de C.V. for switched termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays” will be $0.3214 pesos per minute, effective as from December 31st of 2012.

2) The interconnection fee that Cablevisión, S.A. de C.V., Bestphone S.A. de C.V. and Cablemás Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V. shall pay to Radiomóvil Dipsa, S.A. de C.V. for switched  termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays”, as well as the fee that Operbes, S.A. de C.V. and Cablemás shall pay to Radiomóvil Dipsa for the same item under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays in Mexico” will be $0.3214 pesos per minute, from January 1st to December 31st of 2012.

Moreover, the fee that Radiomóvil Dipsa shall pay to Cablevisión, Bestphone and Cablemás for termination services in fixed telephone users will be $0.02432 pesos per minute, effective from January 1st to December 31st of 2012.

3) The interconnection fees that Avantel, S. de R.L. de C.V. and Axtel, S.A.B. de C.V. shall pay to Iusacell PCS, S.A. de C.V., Comunicaciones Celulares de Occidente, S.A. de C.V., Sistemas Telefónicos Portátiles Celulares, S.A. de C.V., SOS Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V., Telecomunicaciones del Golfo, S.A. de C.V., Portatel del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. and Operadora Unefon S.A. de C.V., for switched termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays” and “Calling Party Pays in Mexico” will be the following:

• From January 1^st to December 31^st of 2012: $0.3214 pesos per minute
• From January 1^st to December 31^st of 2013: $0.3144 pesos per minute

4) The interconnection fee that Alestra S. de R.L. de C.V. shall pay to Comunicaciones Celulares de

Occidente, S.A. de C.V., Sistemas Telefónicos Portátiles Celulares, S.A. de C.V.,

Telecomunicaciones del Golfo, S.A. de C.V., Iusacell PCS, S.A. de C.V., Iusacell PCS de México, S.A de C.V. SOS Telecomunicaciones, S.A. de C.V., Portatel del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. and Operadora Unefon S.A. de C.V., for switched termination services in mobile users under the arrangements “Calling Party Pays” and “Calling Party Pays in Mexico” will be $0.3214 pesos per minute, from January 1^st to December 31^st of 2012.

INEGI and the IFT agree to join efforts to foster telecommunications and broadcasting in Mexico

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) signed today a Cooperation Agreement by which the bases to carry out jointly technical Works to generate statistical data and indicators on telecommunications and broadcasting, were established.

This Agreement will make possible to implement some provisions of the Federal Telecommunications Law, in the sense that both institutions shall act in a coordinated way, in order to create and update indicators in such areas according to the measurement methodology certified or recommended by the International Telecommunications Union.

Thus, INEGI and the IFT will work jointly to develop studies and research, exchange statistical and geographical information, and carry out surveys and polls in several cities, among other activities.

The ceremony of signature of this Cooperation Agreement was presided by Eduardo Sojo Garza Aldape, Chairman of the Governing Board of INEGI, and by Gabriel Oswaldo Contreras Saldívar, President Commissioner of the IFT.

Eduardo Sojo stated that INEGI is willing to participate in the development of actions of gathering, processing, analysis, dissemination, studies and research, as well as the exchange of statistical and geographical information in a coordinated manner to meet the needs and requirements of data in telecommunications and broadcasting.

Gabriel Contreras added that the joint efforts between both institutions takes place at the right time to meet the provisions of the new secondary laws, so that in exercise of their powers under the IFT as a regulatory body telecommunications and broadcasting, collaboration with INEGI will enhance the rigor of statistical data which seeks to bring down the asymmetry of information in these sectors.

Worth mentioning is that the IFT is the highest authority in Mexico in regulation, promotion and supervision of the use, development and exploitation of the spectrum, networks and the provision of broadcasting services and telecommunications.

To achieve the established goals, INEGI and the IFT agreed to create coordinated work groups to work on and develop projects based on schedules and which meet the provisions of the Agreement.

 Mexico, Host for the Works of the XXIV Meeting of the Permanent Consulting Committee of the Inter-American Telecommunications Commision

• The meeting took place in the city of Merida from September 29th to October 3rd
• The Committee discussed topics related to identifying new frequency bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) which are suitable to implement technologies associated to providing mobile broadband services and over the frequency bands used for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) services at a regional level

From September 29th to October 3rd this year the XXIV Meeting of the Permanent Consulting Committee II (XXIV Reunión del Comité Consultivo Permanente II, CCPII), Radiocommunications, of the Interamerican Telecommunications Commission (Comisión Interamericana de Telecomunicaciones, CITEL), a forum in which, among other works, a number of preparatory papers were presented to reach first a regional level, and then a world level agreement on potential modifications to the Radiocommunications Regulations of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which holds a status of International Treaty.

Mexico is a main actor in this forum at a regional level regarding telecommunications and broadcasting, and therefore, as it was appointed as the host for this Meeting, the importance that our country gives to discussing and analyzing these topics is acknowledged.

CITEL is the advisory body to the Organization of American States (OAS), having as mission the integrated and sustainable promotion of telecommunications. The CCPII, its advisory committee, fosters the planning, coordination, harmonization and efficient use of radio spectrum, as well as of the geostationary and non-geostationary satellite orbits for radio communications services, including broadcasting.

The CCPII develops common positions and creates Interamerican proposals on Radiocommunications and Broadcasting established in World and/or Regional Conferences called under the auspices of the ITU. During the World Radiocommunications Conferences (Conferencias Mundiales de Radiocomunicaciones, CMR) the Radiocommunications Regulations, which rule the use of the radio spectrum and of orbital resources, are reviewed.

Furthermore, the Committee discussed topics related to identifying new frequency bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) which are suitable to deploy technologies associated to the supplying of mobile broadband services and over the frequency bands used for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) services at a regional level.

The work groups also discussed topics leading to improving satellite coordination procedures before the ITU to have access and an efficient use of orbital resources, in addition to subjects associated with broadcasting services, particularly on the future use of frequency bands released as a result of the transition process to digital television in this region.

For these purposes, 144 delegates of 20 Member States of the OAS were accredited for these work groups: Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States of America, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. The CCPII meeting was attended by administrations, associate members, officials and observers from CITEL.

Works were concluded with the approval of the Meeting’s Final Report.

The Plenary of the IFT will impose penalties to Teléfonos de México for carrying out relative monopolistic practices

• Monopolistic practices consisted in carrying out actions in the long distance call termination service of the public telecommunications network on the relevant market for the purpose of wrongfully shifting Axtel from the markets for telephone services in which they compete for end users
• Fine imposed to the Company is for $49 million 320 thousand pesos (MXN), and the elimination of the practice was ordered

In extraordinary session the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) gave resolution to an, at this date, on-going case filed by the Federal Competition Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia, CFC) regarding an investigation opened by this entity in May 2011 due to the performance of possible relative monopolistic practices in the long distance call termination service of the public telecommunications network of Telmex on the relevant market.

After closure of the corresponding procedure and based upon analysis of information collected, the Plenary of the IFT found Telmex responsible for the practice of relative monopolistic actions, under Article 10 fraction XI of the Federal Economic Competition Law (Ley Federal de Competencia Económica, LFCE), consisting of developing actions intended to hindering the productive process of the concessionaire Axtel in the long distance calls market.

It was substantiated that Telmex put in practice three conducts that hindered the productive process of Axtel:

1) Not meeting the requests filed by Axtel to have access to the long distance interconnection ports and/or links at the ASL, where the interurban traffic switchboards or routing capacity switchboards are located.

2) Not meeting the requests filed by Axtel with respect to the location and assignment of switchboards giving service to localities without point of interconnection available for the local service areas not open to presubscription.

3) Introduction of recorded messages in the long distance calls made from the public telecommunications network of Axtel to be terminated in the public telecommunications network of Telmex. End users were advertised through this message about the potential cancellation of service, for the direct or indirect purpose of reducing the demand faced by competitor Axtel.

Hence, it was determined that such actions applied by Telmex were aimed undue displacement of Axtel from the telephone service provision position to compete for final consumers, and to reduce the demand in the existing market.

Consequently, the IFT resolved, based upon Article 35, fraction V, of the LFCE, to impose a fine for the amount of $49 million 320 thousand pesos (MXN) to Telmex; being the maximum amount of sum stipulated in the above referred legal statute, since this is deemed to be a severe misconduct that affects the services in the public interest, affects the market because the free competition process is hindered. Additionally, there is evidence determining that the Company had the intention to perform the attributed conducts, among others.

The IFT ordered the suppression of above referred relative monopolistic practice.

This case was resolved by the Plenary during the XI extraordinary session, held on September 3rd of the present year. This information is released to the public once each of the parties have been previously notified and furnished with the public version of the resolution that is available in the website of the institute, under Article 2 of the Federal Economic Competition Law, in full force and effect at inception of this procedure.

El Pleno del IFT aprueba el programa anual de uso y aprovechamiento de bandas de frecuencias 2015

El Pleno del Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) aprobó, en sesión extraordinaria, el Programa Anual de Uso y Aprovechamiento de Bandas de Frecuencias 2015 (Programa 2015), que contiene las frecuencias y bandas del espectro radioeléctrico que se pondrán a disposición de los interesados para la prestación de servicios de telecomunicaciones y radiodifusión, a través de un proceso de licitación o, de ser el caso, por asignación directa el año entrante.

De esta forma, el IFT da cumplimiento, en tiempo y forma, a lo dispuesto en el artículo 59 de la Ley Federal de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión (LFTR) que establece la obligación de expedir, a más tardar el 31 de diciembre de cada año, el programa con las bandas de frecuencias de espectro determinado que serán objeto de licitación o que podrán asignarse directamente, y el cual debe contener al menos los servicios que pueden prestarse, su categoría, modalidades de uso y coberturas geográficas.

Para la elaboración del Programa 2015, el Instituto se basó en los siguientes criterios: propiciar el uso eficiente del espectro radioeléctrico, el beneficio del público usuario, el desarrollo de la competencia y la diversidad e introducción de nuevos servicios de telecomunicaciones y radiodifusión; promover la convergencia de redes y servicios para lograr la eficiencia en el uso de infraestructura y la innovación en el desarrollo de aplicaciones, y garantizar el espectro necesario para los fines y funciones del Ejecutivo Federal.

En este sentido, en materia de telecomunicaciones para uso comercial, el Programa 2015 dispone:

a) El concesionamiento de 60 MHz de espectro identificado para el despliegue de servicios de Telecomunicaciones Móviles Internacionales (IMT), específicamente en los segmentos de 1710-1725/2110-2125 MHz y de 1755-1770/2155-2170 MHz.

b) El concesionamiento de 10 MHz de espectro en la parte baja del rango de UHF, específicamente en el segmento de 440-450 MHz, para la provisión de capacidad para sistemas de radiocomunicación privada.

El Programa 2015 establece que el fallo sobre estas licitaciones de uso comercial deberá darse dentro del mismo 2015.

Asimismo, por primera vez se determinan bandas específicas para servicios de uso social en el sector de telecomunicaciones. Para ello, se contempla el concesionamiento de diversas porciones de espectro que se encuentran disponibles dentro del segmento conocido como la banda celular y que es la comprendida entre 824-849 MHz y entre 869-894 MHz. Para su aprovechamiento se propone que estas porciones del espectro sean concesionadas para la provisión de servicios de conectividad rural, los cuales podrían satisfacer las necesidades inmediatas de contar con el servicio de telefonía básica en regiones no servidas por los concesionarios actuales.

Respecto de las frecuencias para servicios de telecomunicaciones de uso público, el Programa 2015 incluye dos bandas de frecuencias: 415-420/425-430 y 806-814/851-859. Los interesados en obtener una concesión de uso público para prestar servicios de telecomunicaciones podrán presentar las solicitudes correspondientes para éstas u otras bandas durante cualquier día hábil del año.

En cuanto a radiodifusión, el Programa 2015 contempla el concesionamiento de 115 frecuencias para el servicio de radiodifusión sonora en Frecuencia Modulada en diversas regiones del país. De éstas, 97 frecuencias son para uso comercial y 18 de uso social, lo cual se determinó en atención a las manifestaciones de interés, la capacidad económica de las plazas y el espectro disponible.

Para los servicios de televisión radiodifundida no se consideró espectro a concesionar en 2015, toda vez que actualmente están en curso procedimientos como la licitación de frecuencias para formar al menos dos cadenas de televisión radiodifundida digital, la transición a la Televisión Digital Terrestre y la evaluación del eventual despeje de la banda de 600 MHz (canales de televisión 38 al 51).

Respecto de las frecuencias para concesiones de uso social comunitarias e indígenas, el IFT determinó reservar las frecuencias contenidas entre 106 y 108 MHz en FM, lo que implica, de acuerdo con lo establecido en el marco legal, 10% de la banda de FM; en tanto en que en AM se reservaron las frecuencias correspondientes a su banda ampliada que va de 1605 a 1705 kHz. Para esta modalidad de concesionamiento, se incluye en el Programa 2015 la totalidad de las bandas reservadas y se definen tres plazos para presentar las solicitudes correspondientes: abril, julio y noviembre del 2015.

Para concesiones de uso público en radiodifusión se considerarán las solicitudes que se presenten en el plazo establecido en el propio Programa 2015, tanto para estaciones de AM, de FM o de televisión, éstas últimas, únicamente en el rango de canales 14 al 37.

El Instituto establecerá mecanismos de coordinación con las distintas instancias correspondientes para la asignación de concesiones de uso público, para garantizar los requerimientos espectrales del Ejecutivo Federal en términos de ley y para buscar satisfacer las de otros organismos a los que puedan destinarse concesiones de uso público en términos de la LFTR.

Cabe destacar que, una vez publicado el Programa 2015, se abre un periodo de 30 días hábiles para que los interesados puedan solicitar la inclusión de bandas de frecuencia o coberturas geográficas adicionales o distintas a las señaladas, de conformidad con lo establecido en el artículo 61 de la Ley Federal de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión. Una vez agotado este plazo, el IFT evaluará las solicitudes de inclusión recibidas dentro de los treinta días hábiles siguientes para, en su caso, hacer las modificaciones procedentes en el programa definitivo que será aplicable para 2015.

De esta forma, el IFT busca hacer disponibles para 2015 diversas bandas y canales de frecuencia en porciones del espectro idóneas para la prestación de servicios de alto impacto para la sociedad, como comunicaciones móviles de banda ancha, telefonía rural, radiodifusión sonora y de televisión, entre otros.

EL PLENO DEL IFT AUTORIZA Y CONDICIONA LA SALIDA DE TELEVISA DE GRUPO IUSACELL Y LA POSTERIOR VENTA DE ESTA EMPRESA A AT&T

Aprueba la separación estructural definitiva de los grupos Televisa y Salinas y la incursión de la firma estadounidense en México.

En caso de que las empresas no acepten o incumplan las condiciones impuestas, se tendrán por no autorizadas para todos los efectos legales a que haya lugar.

Resolvió sobre la adquisición de Cablecom por parte del Grupo Televisa