The impact of the proposed tax on telecommunications services in Mexico
Mexico's telecommunication regulator, the Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones de México - COFETEL, held a public consultation on the principles that should govern the cost models that will be used to establish interconnection tariffs between public telecom network operators.
A comment prepared by DIRSI within its MARTA program (Support Mechanism for Telecommunications Regulation in Latin America / Mecanismo de Asistencia para la Regulación de las Telecomunicaciones en América Latina) warned that the proposal to include the concept of "network externalities" would leave open the possibility of incorporating subsidies in the payments between operators with the objective of providing service to new users. These subsidies would be paid for by current users, which would involve an additional charge that, far from contributing to the objective of inclusion, would actually bring about reduced use.
The DIRSI report argues that the inclusion of marginalized sectors is a State obligation that generates positive externalities that are much broader than network externalities and, therefore, inclusion should be sought through two fundamental policies:
* Increase of competition, that should encourage efficiency, which would in turn bring about reduced prices and tariffs, and thus increased possibilities for access, and
* Direct subsidies from general revenue, since it is the overall population that benefits and not only those who use telecommunication services that require interconnection.
Both the article and the paper it is based on are only available in Spanish.
