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LatAm: América Móvil to invest $50B

América Móvil plans include expansion of fiber optic network in Mexico

América Móvil, Latin America’s largest communication service provider, is about to conclude its investment plan totaling $50 billion.

The amount will be allocated in all markets where the company has operations. The announcement, reported by the Mexican newspaper El Economista, was made after AT&T’s arrival in the Mexican wireless market with its purchase of Iusacell and Nextel.

AT&T completed its $1.875 billion acquisition of Nextel Mexico in late April.

The deal includes companies operating under the name Nextel Mexico and all of NII Holdings’ wireless properties in Mexico, including spectrum licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 3 million subscribers.

Nextel Mexico’s network covers approximately 76 million people, with the carrier said to control 25 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band, 30 megahertz in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band and “some” IDEN/SMR spectrum.

The deal garnered approval from Mexico’s telecom regulator Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, which also provided swift approval of AT&T’s $2.5 billion purchase of Iusacell, which closed just days before the Nextel Mexico deal was announced. AT&T said it plans to combine those operations into one unit “focused on bringing more choices, better service and faster mobile Internet speeds to more locations throughout Mexico.”

América Móvil plans include expanding its fiber optic network in Mexico.

A new Current Analysis report notes that Mexico’s telecommunications reform, enacted by domestic regulator Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones in 2014, is reinvigorating investment in the nation’s communications infrastructure.

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ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.