America Movil on Thursday presented a new tariff plan that will allow users to make calls to and within the U.S. at domestic rates.
The move is doubtless in response to AT&T’s widely-publicised plan to create a single North American service area, following its acquisition of two Mexican mobile operators in the past 12 months.
The announcement came alongside America Movil’s latest quarterly result s presentation, which showed declining revenue and profit figures, particularly in Mexico, and also made mention of growing market competition following the arrival of AT&T
"We are now three players in the mobile sector, all of us with spectrum, distribution, technology and capital," America Movil said in its results statement.
"The new player has replaced two weak players that had sharply limited themselves. Their lack of investment is evident in the pricing at which those companies were sold to the new entrant," it said, referring to AT&T without using its name.
"Greater investment in the sector and more competition will bring about more penetration and new plans for the benefit of Mexican consumers," the telco added.
Its Telcel Sin Frontera, or Without Borders, plan is available to all postpaid customers for an additional 50 pesos (€2.90/US$3.15) per month.
"At Telcel we are eliminating the border with the U.S. and we will continue to work to offer the best options to our customers," America Movil CEO Daniel Hajj said, in a statement.
Telcel had 72.6 million mobile subscribers as of the end of June, up by 1.9% on the previous year, and representing 25.2% of its 288.8 million group wireless customers.
Its Brazilian business is almost as large in subscriber terms with 71.2 million at the same date. Its U.S. operations had 25.7 million users.
America Movil generates almost 31% of its revenues in Mexico. In Q2 the domestic operation brought in MXN68.1 billion (€3.95 billion), down 2.4% year-on-year, while EBITDA fell by 7.3% to MXN28.2 billion.
At group level the telco generated revenues of MXN220 billion, down 0.1% on the previous year, while EBITDA came in at MXN68.3 billion, down 5%.
"We are seeing a mixed bag of economic indicators throughout Latin America, with Mexico’s economy appearing to be gaining momentum…Brazil’s continuing to go deeper into nega tive territory, Colombia assimilating the blow to the economy from the drop in oil prices and the rest of the region experiencing relatively stable, albeit decelerating, economic growth," America Movil said.
