Cofemer – the federal regulation improvement commission – will receive final recommendations from the private sector this week. The commission will then publish the final regulation in Cofetel's official gazette by mid-year, Cofetel economic commissioner Abel Hibert said.

Hibert says the aim is to increase long distance coverage to prepaid users, particularly rural and lower-income users who currently cannot receive international calls. Approximately 40% of mobile phones in Mexico are prepaid.

Improved access to international calling should stimulate growth in mobile subscribers and should also benefit mobile operators through incoming traffic from the approximately 29 million Mexicans who live in the U.S.

"We are convinced that this new scheme will enable us to see growth in the market that we are currently not seeing, as many people currently don't answer long distance calls because they are very expensive," Hibert said.

Source: Business News Americas