Mexico: AT&T to invest heavily in Mexico in bid to compete with Slim

AT&T is talking of making heavy investment in Mexico, with the US telecom giant implying that its ultimate aim is to replace Carlos Slim’s America Movil as Mexico’s number one telecom player.

Thaddeus Arroyo, AT&T’s Mexico chief executive, told the Financial Times that his company intends to invest heavily in the next five years to widen its subscriber base and establish what he called “industry leadership.”

Several weeks ago, Mexican regulators approved AT&T’s US$1.9 billion acquisition of Nextel. This is AT&T’s third major expansion in Latin America after it purchased Grupo Iusacell for US$2.5 billion and also acquired DirecTV last year.

Under Mexico’s telecom reforms, Telcel is obligated to open up its own infrastructure and let other companies connect to its network without any cost. This has greatly enhanced AT&T’s prospects, although the U.S. firm is still a minnow in the Mexican telecom market.

Full content: The Financial Times

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