MEXICO

On February 23, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT in Spanish) unanimously approved an agreement to modify the provisions of the Organic Statute of the entity that establishes the quorum necessary for its governing body to validly meet. The agreement will become effective the day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF in Spanish), which has not yet occurred. Likewise, the IFT published the Annual Calendar of Public Consultations 2022. Finally, the entity also published the Annual Program of the IFT’s Study Center, which contains the various forums, lectures and activities that this agency will carry out during 2022. 

The amendments made by the IFT to the Organic Statute provide that the plenary may meet if at least three commissioners are present. In this regard, the entity pointed out that these modifications were made with the purpose of avoiding a “paralysis in the exercise of its legal and constitutional attributions”. This is due to the fact that, so far, the government has not made progress with the appointment of the two pending commissioners for the conformation of the entity’s Governing Body. Added to this is the fact that the current president, Adolfo Cuevas, will reach the end of his term on February 28.

Thus, in practice, as from March, the entity will operate with 4 commissioners. It should be noted that without the modification, the minimum quorum would be 4 commissioners, which could make the operation of the entity more complex since it would require the perfect attendance of all the officers with a current mandate in order to be able to make decisions. The amendments also establish that a minimum of 3 commissioners must be present in order to call extraordinary sessions.

On the other hand, among the public consultations to be carried out by the IFT this year, the “Third Biennial Review of the Telecommunications Sector” draft project stands out. The purpose of this public consultation is to gather all kinds of information and comments that will contribute to the evaluation of the impact in terms of competition of the measures imposed on the AEPs. Finally, the Annual Program of Activities of the Center of Studies includes the forum on “Competition Challenges in the Digital Environment 2022”. The objective of this event will be to bring together experts and authorities from regulatory entities to analyze the current state of the Telecommunications and Broadcasting market in terms of economic competition and to prepare proposals to modify the current regulatory framework in order to strengthen it.