Mexico number portability favors dominant player, says CIU

América Móvil's Telcel subsidiary has been the only winner since Mexico implemented number portability nine years ago, according to the Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU).

Mexico became the first country in Latin America to implement number portability with the goal of better balancing its telecom market. Some 50mn mobile lines were ported between July 2008, when the portability mechanism was launched, and May of this year, said the CIU in a release.

Telcel, which dominates the market with approximately 65% of the country's mobile lines, is the only operator that has recorded a positive balance in terms of lines gained through number portability, with 14.6mn ported lines by May, the CIU said.

When looking at US operator AT&T's historical performance, which includes figures from now-defunct operators Lusacell, Nextel, and Unefón, the telco lost 8mn lines, more than it earned in the period. A similar situation can be seen at Spanish operator Telefónica, who lost a total of 6.4mn lines.

The figures show that the number portability mechanism has failed in its goal of balancing the market since the dominant player has grown stronger, said the CIU.

Telcel subscribers prefer to stay with their service provider rather than taking their chances with operators whose networks they are not familiar with, said the think tank. In addition, telecom regulator IFT continues to give Telcel advantages over the competition, such as providing a two-year head start in the use of the 2.5GHz band, according to the CIU.

In the January-May period of this year, Telcel obtained 60.4% more ported lines than the ones it lost to competitors. Of the lines Telcel gained, 54% came from Telefónica, 43.7% from AT&T, and 2.4% from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).

Telefónica, AT&T, and MVNOs respectively lost 61.8%, 33.8%, and 51.8% more lines than they earned in the same period.