Mexico. We already know the president-elect in Mexico and with it, the transition process has begun that will lead to a National Development Plan for the next six years, as well as the definition of strategic lines of action at the sectoral level, including those of telecommunications and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
The latter must be a pending issue for the next administration, because despite the fact that significant progress has been made in this sector since the Constitutional Reform (i.e. lower prices, greater availability and access to services), there are still pending issues and latent challenges to address.
First, the gestation of effective competition. More than five years after the Reform, one of the unfulfilled promises has been the rebalancing of the markets towards competing operators.
Although there is a competitive impulse among the players in terms of investment and commercial offers, the main operator, also called the Preponderant Economic Agent (AEP), holds 6 out of 10 telecommunications users, that is, a scarce reduction of 4.5 percentage points of its market share in the sectoral aggregate.
Another of the pending issues is that of universal connectivity. Although internet access has grown significantly between households (44.0% of the total) and economic units (43.0% of the total) during the current administration, the constitutional mandate of having minimum access in 70% of households and 85% of MSMEs nationwide has not yet been achieved.
Another challenge is the materialization of a fully digital government, economy and society. In addition to the efforts of availability and universal accessibility of ICTs, the implementation of effective actions is required to detonate the optimal use of these technologies in the social, productive, educational and governmental interaction life for all Mexicans.
On the other hand, the generation of incentives for investment in infrastructure and sectoral innovation, the fourth industrial revolution, net neutrality, the internet of things, a comprehensive fiscal policy for telecommunications, the transition to the provision of 5G mobile services and the realization of a satellite policy, are some of the additional challenges that the government about to take office has.
Proposals of the Incoming Government
In general terms, considering both pronouncements and proposals of the electoral platform and the Nation Plan 2018-2024 issued by the virtual President-Elect and his advisors, a position is identified that focuses mainly on the expansion of the coverage of services.
Although it has been argued on several occasions that the incoming administration does not plan changes in the legal framework that to date governs the industry, a change in priorities can be noticed. In this sense, there has been a lower role of aspects of economic competition to focus efforts on increasing the availability and adoption of services.
As far as the digital economy is concerned, its importance is emphasized so far, but there is a lack of specific approaches or proposals to overcome the greatest challenges facing its development. Meanwhile, on the broadcasting sector, pronouncements have been detected in favor of a rethinking of the official times that the State receives and against high amounts of spending on social communication.
For now, we can wait for the specific definition of a sectoral strategy that we hope will emerge from the guidelines issued from industry and social demands. This in the form of a National Digital Agenda for the coming years.
Text written by Ernesto Piedras of The Competitive Intelligence Unit.
