Move to unify Iusacell, Nextel Mexico under AT&T banner
AT&T said this week that it has begun to rebrand its recently acquired Mexican operations, including the launch of new rate plans under the AT&T brand.
The Wall Street Journal reported AT&T officials said the rebranding effort of the telecom giant’s recently acquired Iusacell and Nextel Mexico services would likely take through the end of 2016. Those two acquisitions totaled $4.4 billion.
AT&T said the rate plans would be offered under the umbrella of the “AT&T Unidos” brand, with the offerings available in both Iusacell and Nextel Mexico retail locations. Those stores will be part of the rebranding effort and soon sport the AT&T logo. AT&T also said it plans to continue using the Unefon brand in Mexico for its prepaid services.
AT&T in late June announced plans to invest $3 billion to expand “high-speed, mobile Internet service” to 100 million people in Mexico by the end of 2018. The initial investment is expected to see AT&T build out services covering 40 million potential customers by the end of the year. That reach is set to hit 75 million pops by the end of 2016, and 100 million pops by the end of 2018.
Analysts had noted that the combined operations would control more than 70 megahertz of nationwide spectrum with 90 megahertz in some markets.
AT&T also said it intends to introduce new rate plans that allow Mexico customers to use their individual plans while in traveling in the U.S. That move builds on AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s previous statement of offering what it called the first-ever North American mobile service area tapping into its own U.S.-based network and newly acquired assets. AT&T said the combined networks would cover more than 400 million potential customers.
AT&T’s Mexico expansion initiated competitive moves by rivals on both sides of the border.
T-Mobile US last month announced its “Mobile without Borders” program that allows branded postpaid and prepaid customers to place calls, send text messages and access data services in Mexico – and Canada – by tapping into their rate plans at no extra cost. The data access includes LTE speeds where available, and customers can also place calls from the U.S. to all numbers in Canada and Mexico for no extra cost on qualifying plans. T-Mobile US expanded the service to its MetroPCS prepaid brand.
Verizon Wireless countered the moves by updating its international roaming option that for $5 per month allows customers to call Mexico and Canada for no additional per-minute fees, with calling minutes deducted from their current plans. The offer is also available to its branded prepaid customers.
Sprint followed suit when earlier this month it launched its Open World program that includes 1 gigabyte of free 3G data for customers roaming in Mexico as well as free voice calls and text messages from its U.S. network into Mexico.
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