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Telefonica, Televisa and Megacable to jointly bid for fiber
(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mexico City, Mar 20 (EFE).- The local unit of Spain's Telefonica, Mexican media giant Televisa and Mexican cable TV provider Megacable announced plans to jointly bid for fiber-optic cable capacity being offered by Mexico's state power company.
In a statement on Friday, the companies said they will form a joint venture, in which each firm would hold an equal stake, if their bid is successful.
In November, the Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, published the rules for its auction of strands of "dark," or unused, fiber-optic strands and the winners are to be announced later this year.
Mexican authorities said a few months ago that they wanted to provide private companies with access to the CFE's fiber-optic network, which is the country's second largest after that of fixed-line giant Telmex, controlled by the world's richest man, Carlos Slim.
The CFE's dark fiber is located along three routes: the Pacific coast, the Gulf coast and central Mexico.
In addition to bringing new players into the telecommunications market, the goal of the auction is to increase broadband Internet access to homes and businesses and give companies that are now heavily dependent on Telmex's network more options for routing their voice, data and video traffic.
In the statement, the three companies said the new fiber-optic capacity will create "greater competition in Mexico's telecommunications market" and make the country more competitive on a global scale.
Televisa, the world's largest Spanish-language broadcaster, is a major player in Mexico's cable TV industry and also has Internet, satellite and mobile telephone holdings, while Megacable is Mexico's largest cable operator and also offers telephone service.
Telefonica's Mexican unit is Mexico's second-largest wireless provider, though it trails far behind No. 1 operator Telcel, also controlled by Slim.
Telmex is Mexico's dominant fixed-line and Internet provider, but the government has denied the company a license to offer video services. EFE
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(c) 2010 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
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