Atlantic Council Conference underscores transformative impact of telecom reform

MEXICO: Mexico’s new telecommunications laws, the country’s first sectorial reform in nearly two decades, will effectively break down monopolies and overhaul the industry, while impacting the lives of every day Mexicans.

This was the consensus that emerged from the International Forum on Mexican Telecommunications Reform: An Era of New Opportunities yesterday—the first industry-wide conference since the implementing legislation was signed into law less than two months ago. The Mexico City conference was organized by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, a Washington DC-based foreign policy think tank.

Speakers at the forum included policymakers and leaders across relevant industries who were crucial in envisioning and passing the reforms such as key Senators Jorge Lavalle Maury (PAN), Omar Fayad Meneses (PRI), and Luis Armando Melgar Bravo (PVEM) who  provided an inside look into the process of working across political parties to move the reform forward in Congress.

Others included: Alejandra Lagunes, coordinator of digital strategy in the President’s Office; Luis Fernando Borjon, IFETEL commissioner; Antonio Garcia Zaballos, a telecom specialist at the Inter-American Development bank, and several CEOs from international corporations.

In a keynote address, Undersecretary José Ignacio Peralta of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation highlighted the reform’s expected transformations.

“The reforms have opened a new era in the development of Mexico, with more competition, greater coverage, quality services, efficient regulation, and social inclusion. Telecommunications reform is part of eleven structural changes championed by the President Enrique Peña Nieto, who from the beginning of his government proposed to transform our country through amendments to the law delayed for twenty years,” noted Undersecretary Peralta.