27. Could Telmex be ready for Tripleplay if it already carries data through its network?
That is public TV and we do not provide a public service. Do you see the difference? Let me make this very clear. Telmex has the obligation to provide a universal service. For example, other telephony concessionaires have a telephony business, but they do not provide public service, they are not bound to provide a universal service. We have some rates that have to be approved, they just have to register their rates and they start running their business. In telephony we provide public service.
There are two different reasons why Telmex could provide video service. The first one is technical. We have a concession to transmit voice and data; video is only data: zeros and ones. Then, from the technical point of view we have authorization and there is an express prohibition with it, in clause 1.9, that has no reason to be in the Concession Title, unless it is there to protect the interest of the people that had the TV business. And this clause says that we cannot provide TV to the public.
Cablevisión has a public service, that is to broadcast TV signals. You call it restricted television. Channel 2 or channel 13 broadcast TV to the public at large. According to their law they perform an activity of public interest, but they do not provide a public service, their rates are not regulated, they are not bound to provide universal service, etc.
From that point of view, the wording in Article 1.9 is more like a prohibition to broadcast open television, than a ban to provide the public service of broadcasting television signals.
However, Telmex’s Board of Directors decided to interpret it by the book and to follow the procedures demanded by administrative authorities so as not to adopt a different interpretation; we are just going to comply with this.
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