Mexican Phone, TV Firms Raise Ante

Three powerful billionaires, lambasting one another as "monopolists" and "duopolists," filed complaints against each other , ratcheting up a battle over Mexico's $35 billion telecommunication and broadcast markets.

First, a coalition of 25 cable, phone and broadcasting companies filed a complaint against Teléfonos de Mexico SAB, known as Telmex, and Telcel, Mexico's largest land-line and mobile-phone companies. Both companies are controlled by Carlos Slim, a telecommunications mogul and the world's richest man. The complaint, filed before Mexico's Federal Competition Commission, is an attempt to force Slim's companies to lower the rates charged to connect to their phone networks.

In turn, Slim cited the broadcasters for monopolistic practices, among other things. In play is the future of Mexico's $35 billion a year telecommunications and broadcasting market as companies strive to bundle TV, broadband Internet and phone services. While Mexican companies rarely intrude on each other's markets, the country's regulatory controls have failed to keep up with technological convergence, leading broadcasters and telcom companies to try to invade each other's turf. Televisa and TV Azteca worry that if Slim enters the TV market, he will have an unfair advantage because of Telmex's control of 80% of the country's land lines and Telcel's control of 70% of the mobile-phone market. Slim's competitors also say they have no chance of challenging him in the phone market because of the high rates his companies charge them to connect to his networks.