Following the latest approval cycle that saw AT&T gain approval from Mexican regulators for the planned purchase of Mexican carrier Iusacell, Vice-President of Networks and Technology John Donovan went into further detail regarding the carrier’s grand ambition for its Mexican expansion during the recently held Media, Internet and Telecom conference hosted by Citi.
He began with a heavy emphasis on US-Mexican cross-border communication. Along with the focus, AT&T also plans to rollout 4G LTE service in Mexico as well as a focus on making Iusacell’s service plans much more competitive than local carriers, but declined to state when the carrier would begin such a rollout or how much would be spent in terms of capital investment.
While AT&T is a solid #2 in the US in terms of active post and prepaid customers, the carrier will be entering the Mexican market with Iusacell at a distant #3 with 8 million customers compared to the 19 million of Telefonica’s Movistar and the 71 million customers held by its former business partner in Telcel, which means that AT&T will have to leverage every bit of the acquired infrastructure to reach its goal of covering 400 million through its planned North American Service Area, which includes expanded Mexican coverage. Currently, the Iusacell purchase is slated to be completed sometime in the first quarter.
