Virgin to Compete With Telcel for Mexico’s Mobile Market

Virgin Mobile plans to expand its presence in Latin America by entering the Mexican mobile market which has long been dominated by Carlos Slim’s Telcel.

Virgin Mobile Mexico will trade as a virtual network from next year, buying airtime wholesale from an established telecommunications company, rather than taking on massive costs by building new masts, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports.

Telcel currently serves more than two thirds of Mexico’s 100 million mobile users, but recent anti-monopoly legislation passed by Mexico’s Congress will help open the sector by creating a new industry regulator and imposing a 50% market share limit in the telecommunications and television sectors.

“I think there’s room for both of us. I don’t think [Slim] will suffer much from our presence,” Virgin owner Richard Branson told Latin American business magazine Expansion.

Branson, whose estimated fortune of US$4.6 billion pales in comparison with Slim’s US$73 billion, has already introduced Virgin Mobile to Latin America in Chile and Colombia.