AT&T Mexico

AT&T Mexico

Type	Subsidiary of AT&T
Industry	Telecommunications
Predecessor	Iusacell Nextel Mexico
Founded	2015; 2 years ago (2015)
Headquarters	Mexico City, Mexico
Key people	Kelly King (CEO)
Products	Wireless Telephone Internet
Number of employees	7,835
Parent	AT&T International (AT&T Inc.)
Subsidiaries	Unefón
Website	www.att.com.mx

AT&T Mexico (formerly Iusacell and Nextel Mexico) is a Mexican mobile telephone operator and subsidiary of AT&T, which is headquartered in Mexico City. AT&T Mexico has presence in 90% of Mexico, serving 13% of the Mexican wireless market with 12.6 million subscribers as of Q1 2017.

The company was originally Iusacell, a Joint venture at a rate 50% each, between Grupo Salinas and Grupo Televisa, however, on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, Cofetel temporarily refused to approve a merger between Televisa and Iusacell, with three votes against. The three votes were due to illegal damage to third parties and hindering competition for open and pay television. This refusal continued until 2012 with Televisa and TV Azteca against Grupo Carso. Eventually, the merger was accepted with different conditions, among which allowing any company advertising time without condition, prohibiting the staff of Grupo Televisa and Grupo Salinas from hindering a developing third television network, and if not achieved within two years, dismantle the merge. With 8.2 million users at the time, the company also offered local and long distance service, as well as wireless and fiber optic Internet. Fiber is available only in some neighborhoods of Mexico City and the states of Jalisco and Nuevo León. These services are offered under the brand Iusatel, messaging services (SMS, MMS and email), mobile TV and mobile broadband (with your brand BAM). On Friday November 7, 2014 the US company AT&T announced the acquisition of Iusacell for 2,500 million, including debt.

The company provides cellular services reaching about 90% of Mexico's population, including Mexico City and received more licenses to cover the remaining regions in early 2005. It has more than 5.4 million subscribers (68.6% are prepaid). The company also offers local and long-distance telephony, messaging services, mobile television and wireless broadband services (BAM).

Bell Atlantic (now Verizon Communications) and Vodafone Group together acquired 74.5% of the company in 2001 from the Peralta family, which founded Iusacell in 1987. But following Iusacell's default on debts, the two companies in 2003 sold their stake to Ricardo Salinas Pliego's Movil@ccess in a deal valued at $7.4 billion.

In June 2003 a Movil@ccess (Movilaccess) of Grupo Salinas, extended a tender offer to purchase the control of Grupo Iusacell's stock, by the time Grupo Salinas already own a mobile phone company, Unefon, but the other major stock holder of Unefon, Grupo Sada, disagreed in the purchase of Iusacell because of the debt and low profit problems. The former controlling shareholders of Grupo Iusacell (BMV: CEL: Latibex: XCEL), Verizon and Vodafone, agreed to tender the entirety of their stock, which resulted in the acquisition of a majority interest by Grupo Salinas.