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AT&T buys Nextel Mexico to create 'North American Mobile Service area'
AT&T has acquired another Mexican carrier in what seems to be an effort to conquer the continent... well, two of its countries anyway. Ma Bell has snapped up Nextel Mexico for $1.875 billion, shortly after its Iusacell (also a Mexican carrier) acquisition was approved by the country's telecom regulator, Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT). This time around, the IFT quickly approved the sale and transfer of Nextel's spectrum licenses, network assets, retail outlets and subscribers to AT&T, so the carrier can execute its plans ASAP. According to the company's official announcement, it will merge Iusacell and Nextel into a single company for wider coverage and as part of its plan to create "the first-ever North American Mobile Service area." Despite its name, that area only encompasses the US and Mexico, but it will cover over 400 million consumers in both countries once the merged company's up and running. [Image credit: JeepersMedia/Flickr]
Mexican 3G auction could bring in $1.5B, depending on bidders' moods
Mexico's prepping for a big auction of purpose-built 3G spectrum in the 1700 and 1900MHz bands toward the end of the year, and at least one big-time investment group, Banamex, believes that could net as much as $1.5 billion for the government when everything's said and done. The estimate actually runs from $1 billion to $1.5 billion depending on the number of bidders that ultimately decide to participate and which side of the bed they woke up on that morning, but any way you slice it, it's a nice chunk of change (for comparison's sake, Canada's AWS auction brought in CAD $4.2 billion -- about $3.86 billion). Telcel, Telefonica, and NII are all said to be virtual locks to place bids, while Mexico's number-three operator -- Iusacell -- may sit this one out considering its less-than-stellar financial situation and a stash of spare spectrum that it already has at its disposal. Before you start any wild rumors that a foreign company might swoop in and shake things up, be warned -- Banamex says that's highly unlikely considering failed attempts to bust into the Mexican market by Verizon, Voda, and France Telecom in the past.
Mobile payments coming to Mexico
Like Canada, Mexico's getting mobile payments, too, but these are just a bit different in two very important respects. One, this is a full-fledged service being underwritten by Telefonica, Iusacell, Citibank, and BBVA -- not just a trial. Two, unlike the NFC-based Canadian system, this one will rely on text messages to get the cash flowing. The service is expected to launch in the next few months and get backing from restaurants, stores, and taxis, all places where we can recall specific times when we would've rather kept our wallets in our pockets when the time came to pony up. Of course, considering how miserably unsuccessful mobile payments have been across North America so far (we've still got our fingers crossed that NFC is going to take off one of these days), this one could die off as quickly as it started unless it catches a break and goes big.
