Mexico. The Plenary of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, IFT, approved modifications to the Annual Program for the Use and Exploitation of Frequency Bands 2016 (Program 2016), which contains the frequencies and bands of the radio spectrum that will be made available to interested parties for the provision of telecommunications and broadcasting services.
In the assessment made by the Institute, it was analyzed whether its inclusion was viable, but this does not imply that by themselves the applications entail the granting of a concession or that they represent for the petitioner a preference for obtaining it, since the allocation of the spectrum contemplated in the 2016 Program must comply with the requirements required by the applicable regulations.
The 2016 Program with its modifications contemplates the concession of 148 frequencies of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) for commercial use, 40 channels for public use and 6 for social use, for a total of 194 channels.
The number of channels for commercial use is expanded in this 2016 Program with its modifications based on the results of the transition to DTT and the coordination of television channels with the United States of America in the common border area, as well as derived from the assessment of the expressions of interest presented in accordance with article 61 of the Law.
For the fm sound broadcasting service, 42 stations for commercial use, 18 for public use and 69 for social use are contemplated; while for amplitude modulated the 2016 Program includes 11 frequencies for commercial use, 4 for public use and 7 for social use. Thus, the 2016 Program includes 129 frequencies for FM radio and 22 for AM radio.
In the case of commercial FM stations, the Institute carried out the corresponding assessment, in accordance with the provisions of "Technical Provision IFT-002-2014: Specifications and minimum requirements for the installation and operation of Fm modulated sound broadcasting stations" (Technical Provision IFT-002-2014), published in the DOF on September 1, 2014.
Also, derived from an analysis of economic competition, 24 localities were determined with a high concentration of commercial concessions, of which, in some of them, there is spectral availability; therefore, frequencies for seven localities were included in the 2016 Program with its modifications, in order to reduce the degree of concentration identified.
It is important to note that the frequencies, channels and bands referred to in the 2016 Program are additional to those contemplated in the Annual Program for the Use and Exploitation of Frequency Bands 2015, whose implementation is already underway.
