Mexico: Regulation of OTT market in the works

Mexico’s telecoms watchdog IFT is considering the possibility of regulating over the top services provided by platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in view of their increasing importance in the market, reports El Economista, citing IFT strategic planning coordinator Aldo Sanchez. “OTT services aren’t currently regulated like other services and we are working on the relevance of having some form of regulation in this new market,” said Sanchez. However, before that occurs, the regulator needs to explore how to obtain accurate data to measure the progress of this market at a national level, he added.

According to the IFT’s records, some 1.53 billion SMS were sent in 2014, with Telefonica accounting for 73.87 percent of the total, followed by Iusacell-Unefon with 13.96 percent and Telcel with 11.06 percent. However, a comparison with countries such as Turkey, China, Chile, Brazil and Colombia showed that the number of text messages exchanged in Mexico is clearly declining in the face of competition from alternative messaging platforms, said Sanchez.

Full content: El Economista

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