Mexico. The Plenary of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, IFT, resolved to submit to public consultation the Draft Guidelines through which the criteria for the change of frequency of radio stations operating in the amplitude modulated band, AM, to the modulated frequency band, FM, are established. The consultation is valid for 20 days, starting on Monday, June 20.
The objective of the public consultation is to obtain comments from concessionaires, permittees, specialists in the field and the general public, which will allow to nourish the determination made by the Institute in relation to the way in which sound broadcasting stations will transit in the AM to FM band. The IFT, as in other consultations, will analyze the comments, proposals and contributions and incorporate those that are technically and legally feasible.
The guidelines comply with the provisions of the eighteenth transitory article of the Federal Law on Telecommunications and Broadcasting (LFTR) approved by the Congress of the Union, which states that the Institute must seek the development of the relevant radio market, the migration of as many dealer stations as possible from the AM band to the FM band, the strengthening of the conditions of competition and continuity in the provision of services.
For the IFT, it is essential to establish objective and transparent criteria that allow as many AM radio stations as possible to migrate to the FM band, which could not do so in 2008, based on the fact that, under the then applicable regulations, there was no spectral sufficiency in their localities.
The stations that could not migrate were located in Guanajuato, Jalisco, State of Mexico, Puebla, Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tamaulipas and Mexico City.
Through Technical Provision IFT-002-2016 approved by the Plenary of the Institute, which reduces the separation between frequencies from 800 KHz to 400 kHz in the FM band, 67 additional frequencies were identified in the indicated localities, of which the Institute is reserving 21 for community and indigenous radio stations, in accordance with what is mandated in article 90 of the LFTR.
Therefore, the IFT Plenary considered it feasible to allow those concessionaires, who operate in the AM sound broadcasting band of these localities and who so manifest, to request their change of band in order to strengthen and promote the development of the broadcasting sector, by promoting a better use of the radio spectrum, in an environment of fairness and healthy competition.
