Ungovernability and violence are major issues hindering Mexican telecom operators’ efforts to install and deploy infrastructure.
This is especially true in rural areas where criminal groups are often powerful and municipal governments have little or no consideration for telecom regulator IFT’s legal framework, according to an expert.
“Where it has become very difficult is in Tamaulipas, in some parts of Nuevo León, in the north. And in other places it’s not just organized crime, it’s the community members, it’s the landowners. They say: ‘Either you pay me or you don’t pass,” President of electronics, telecommunications and IT chamber Canieti, Enrique Yamuni Robles told BNamericas at an event on Tuesday.
There is also vandalism, he said. “They cut the cables and when you arrive to repair them, they steal from you. That can’t keep happening. Security in the country has become a gigantic extra cost,” he said.
Yamuni participated in a panel on 5G and its impact on productivity during the Ericsson Imagine Live 5G event.
Asked about the obstacles to infrastructure deployment for the new technology, he said that insecurity in rural areas is a problem that operators face every day and which must be addressed.
In these remote areas, he explained, certain municipal authorities do not respect IFT’s regulatory system and sometimes charge operators to carry out installation works and even the use of airspace.
“The law exists, what we have to do is clarify it,” Yamuni said, adding that some local governments come up with their own interpretation of the law, even though it is clear that the IFT is the country’s telecom regulator.
“We have to reinforce the [federal telecommunications law] across the board with all the laws to say who is the one who has power over communications,” he said.
