Mexico Regulator Tells Cell Cos To Swap SMS With Nextel

MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- Mexico's telecommunications regulator said Thursday it has ordered mobile-phone operators in the country to let their customers exchange text messages with those of trunking operator Nextel Mexico, the local unit of NII Holdings Inc.

The Federal Telecommunications Commission, or Cofetel, said in a press release that it has given America Movil, Spain's Telefonica Moviles, Unefon, and Iusacell 60 days to interconnect their networks with Nextel for the exchange of text messages, also called SMS for short message service.

Nextel is the Mexican market leader in push-to-talk service and also offers wireless data transmission, wireless Internet, and mobile phone service via network access.

The company had complained to Cofetel that it was unable to achieve SMS agreements with the other mobile operators, whose customers can exchange text messages among themselves.

Frustrated with the lack of a response, last year Nextel complained to the country's antitrust commission, calling for a probe into possible anti-competitive practices by America Movil unit Telcel, which is by far the country's biggest wireless operator with 33.6 million subscribers at the end of September.

Cofetel proposed a maximum interconnection charge of 0.12 pesos (1 cent) for completing the exchange of messages.

The commission cited advances in information technology in determining that "SMS shouldn't be considered any different from paging via short messages," since both have the same objective.

Nextel's service concession is formally for "trunking," and for regulatory purposes it isn't considered as a wireless operator.

-By Anthony Harrup, Dow Jones Newswires; (5255) 5080-3450, anthony.harrup@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 12th January 2006