AT&T announces deal to acquire Mexico provider Iusacell

[Jeff Causey]

​

In an announcement made on Friday, AT&T indicated they have entered into an agreement to purchase wireless provider Iusacell for $2.5 billion from Grupo Salinas. Iusacell is a wireless provider in Mexico servicing 8.6 million customers and covering about 70% of Mexico’s population. According to AT&T CEO,

“Our acquisition of Iusacell is a direct result of the reforms put in place by President Peña Nieto to encourage more competition and more investment in Mexico. Those reforms together with the country’s strong economic outlook, growing population and growing middle class make Mexico an attractive place to invest.”
​

Before AT&T will be able to close the deal, Grupo Salinas must first purchase the 50 percent of Iusacell that it does not currently own. Once that is complete, AT&T expects to complete the acquisition which will include all of Iusacell’s wireless spectrum, network assets, all licenses, retail stores, and the customer base.

AT&T’s Stephenson indicated the company will invest in additional infrastructure to continue growing Iusacell’s footprint in Mexico. In addition, AT&T says “It won’t matter which country you’re in or which country you’re calling – it will all be one network, one customer experience.”

Representatives from Iusacell and AT&T believe the ability to create a single North American Mobile Service area will provide the companies with good economies of scale and efficiencies while also being attractive to customers. Although Mexico has trailed the U.S. in terms of smartphone penetration, AT&T thinks the growing young population, a growing middle class, and more urbanization, provide a good opportunity given some investment in higher speed networks.

In other news as part of their announcement, AT&T says their Project VIP network expansion plans are ahead of schedule. The 4G LTE network is essentially completed, the build-out of its wired high-speed Internet service is complete, and about 600,000 of 1,000,000 planned fiber connections to business locations have been completed. For 2015, AT&T expects capital expenditures to be in the $18 billion range.

source: AT&T


Come comment on this article: AT&T announces deal to acquire Mexico provider Iusacell

Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more!​

News via TalkAndroid