The Supreme Court, autonomous; the IFT, submitted

A sigh of relief passed through the minds of all those who still believe that the law is the law. Against all odds, Norma Lucía Piña was elected president of the Nation’s Supreme Court of Justice. In an environment where impunity, caprice and factious use of the law had come to seem normal, the election of Minister Piña was a clear demonstration that the judiciary will not allow itself to be subdued without a fight and with the Constitution in hand. hand. !! Congratulations!!

At the other extreme of dignity, during the last weeks of 2022 we witnessed the surrender of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) to its constitutional mission of promoting competition in the sector. To everyone’s surprise, the last month was an eye opener for us. Never before have we seen a regulator so powerful on paper and so submissive in the face of the economic power represented by the Preponderant Economic Agent in Telecommunications (AEP-T).

With much fewer tools, powers and budget, the extinct Federal Telecommunications Commission made significant progress in various aspects that we take for granted today, but which required the dedication and dedication of many committed officials; without them, the explosion in cellular penetration triggered by the “El que llama Paga” interconnection, the prepaid modality and the portability of the user number simply would not have occurred. Each of these advances was achieved despite the resistance of the AEP-T and always with the mission of freeing the user from a monopolistic environment, so that he could have a greater offer and variety of providers and services.

Despite this, the administrative scaffolding allowed the AEP-T to delay through litigation and suspensions any small step that was taken to achieve a competitive environment. For this reason, the constitutional reform in telecommunications of 2013 created an autonomous super regulator with highly trained trans-exenal commissioners. The IFT has it all, but the lack of commitment and vision of the current commissioners has turned it into little more than a party official. They impose asymmetric regulation on the AEP-T because the Constitution mandates it, but they do so with conditions that allow the AEP-T to block any real effect that it could have on the market. Worse still, they have entered into a veritable impunity pact with América Móvil, Telmex and Telcel.

On Friday, December 9, 2022, the IFT openly and with twisted arguments resigned from its obligation to supervise and sanction the AEP-T for the systematic violation of the asymmetric regulation that was imposed by the Institute itself. After five years of heating up the file and despite the fact that all the commissioners had expressly acknowledged Telmex’s breach of the obligation to make 60% of the information related to its infrastructure of poles and wells available to the competition, simply they reject their own investigation, they retract and show the AEP-T that impunity is guaranteed with them. The issue is not minor, the IFT itself (under another command) sanctioned Telnor in 2020, for carrying out exactly the same conduct that pardoned Telmex, with a fine of $1,312 million pesos. Given that the sanction for non-compliance is established in the legal framework as a proportion of its income, it is estimated that the forgiveness to Telmex exceeds $20,000 million pesos. Giving up fully complying with its mandate to create conditions of competition and ensure that they are maintained in the long term, it is discouraging and pernicious for the industry and for users. The clear differences between the actions of the Supreme Court and that of the IFT make it clear to us that no matter how solid the institutions are on paper, it is the character of men the one that truly comes to light when it comes to exercising power or opposing it.

Twitter: @gsoriag