Mexico City, Mexico — The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has fined telephone giant Telcel for restricting its consumer’s options. The phone company Telcel (Radiomovil Dipsa) was fined more than 90.6 million pesos for monopolistic practices by displacing competition in three states.
Telcel was fined by the Instituto Federal de las Telecomunicaciones (IFT) for engaging in what the IFT has called a monopolistic practice by offering incentives and benefits to a distributor so that it would not promote the cell phone packages and telephone services of its competitors.
The IFT, who regulates telecommunications practices in Mexico, exposed the way in which Telcel restricted consumers’ “options to acquire mobile terminal equipment and SIM card packages as well as to make recharges” in department stores in Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco.
The company has reacted to the IFT’s statement and expressed its disagreement with the IFT’s investigation since, according to Telcel, “it is based on statements from its competitor,” and announced that it will challenge the multimillion-dollar fine.
Radiomovil Dipsa (Telcel) is a company that is part of the América Móvil conglomerate, a company owned by Carlos Slim Helú, who according to Forbes magazine, was worth $102 billion USD in 2024.