Fast Slim

Here’s an admittedly cynical take on the elevation of the Mexican telecom magnate who Forbes magazine said narrowly surpassed Warren Buffet to become the world’s second wealthiest man, just a notch behind Bill Gates and his $56 billion value-added bank account.
Carlos Slim is heavily vested in Mexico’s dominant landline and cellular operators, meaning he controls them. Slim, like his two compatriots to the north, also has a philanthropic side, we’re told. But Slim’s poor countrymen who risk life and limb to cross the border-legally and otherwise-are not beneficiaries. Indeed, they may be unwittingly subsidizing him. Of all things!
It just so happens the Bush administration is growing increasingly agitated over mobile termination fees charged by Telcel, which reportedly controls nearly 80 percent of the Mexican mobile-phone market. As an aside, Slim’s Movil America, parent to top U.S. pre-paid cellular provider Tracfone Wireless Inc., is the kingpin of Latin America.
In a new report, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative exudes frustration over the deal COFETEL, Mexico’s telecom regulator, acquiesced to in order to avoid litigation and get mobile termination fees down to a cost-based level. It appears COFETEL’s recommended mobile termination fees were ignored and thus not implemented. Instead, according to USTR, Mexico’s wireline and wireless carriers negotiated their own formula for mobile termination fees that was approximately one penny higher than COFETEL’s plan. USTR said the industry-concocted fee schedule, besides possibly violating major trade deals, translates into an additional $124 million U.S. long-distance carriers will pay the next five years to have calls from the states delivered to cellular subscribers in Mexico. U.S. telecom carriers in turn will pass those costs to customers, many of whom are likely burning the lines with updates to the folks back home on the immigration debate here and the unpleasant prospect of returning to Carlos Slim Country.