America Movil SAB, the mobile-phone carrier controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, has to face limits in Colombia so the country can open up to potential new investors such as DirecTV, the nations top telecommunications official said.
To boost competition, Colombias government must partially exclude America Movil from an auction of airwaves next year that would allow mobile-phone companies to upgrade their networks to offer faster 4G service, Information Technology and Communications Minister Diego Molano said.
The proposal, which awaits public comment, strikes a blow against America Movil, the largest mobile-phone company in the Americas by subscribers, in a country that is its third-largest and third-most profitable market. The partial auction ban would hurt investment and slow the spread of wireless high-speed Internet in Colombia, the company has said.
We have to seek a balance, Molano said in a Nov. 9 interview in Bogota. With this scenario, theres going to be a lot of investment in the country.
The auction may lure new companies into Colombia to offer wireless data services, including U.S. companies DirecTV and NII Holdings Inc., Mexicos TV Azteca SAB and Chiles Empresa Nacional de
Telecomunicaciones SA, known as Entel, Molano said.
America Movil is 72-year-old Slims largest company, representing about 54 percent of his $71.8 billion fortune as the worlds richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
2.5 Gigahertz
