Telmex won’t halt OTT coverage of Pan American Games
Following legal action threats over its live Internet coverage of the 2011 Pan American Games currently taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico, Telmex has insisted it was doing nothing wrong.
Earlier this week, both Grupo Salinas (the Mexican media conglomerate that owns TV Azteca) and domestic mobile phone operator Iusacell had announced they would be lodging a complaint against Grupo Telmex before the Federal Telecommunications Commission (Cofetel).
The two companies argue that, by using UnoTV – an online video streaming channel created by Carlos Slim's company – to bring live, free TV coverage of the XVI Pan American Games to broadband-connected screens and wireless devices, Telmex is violating its concession licence.
Unlike in other Latin American markets, where Telmex has been allowed to enter the pay-TV business, the company is yet to persuade the authorities in its home country to be granted a similar broadcast permit.
For as long as the existing regulatory framework remains in place, Telmex is expressly forbidden from using the fixed telephony network that it inherited following the privatisation of the former state monopoly to distribute audio or TV content directly to the public.
"While it is true that Telmex is not using the radiofrequency spectrum to transmit free-to-air or pay-TV signals, it is still using its network to carry audio and video content in the shape of standard TV programming, and it's offering this channel to the public," Francisco Borrego, legal director at TV Azteca had complained on Wednesday while speaking to El Universal newspaper.
Telmex's answer didn't take long. Yesterday, the company's director of strategic alliances, communication and public relations, Arturo Elías Ayub, categorically denied that the group was infringing condition 1.9 of its concession licence.
According to the Telmex spokesman, since UnoTV is actually an online channel, there's no room for debate: "Nobody can have the freedom to use the Internet taken away from them", he stated.
Elías Ayub also warned that Telmex will vigorously defend itself against potential lawsuits. And he insisted that under no circumstances will the telco stop its ongoing coverage of the Guadalajara Games via its over-the-top (OTT) channel.
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