Analysis of The Challenges Related to Telecommunications in Mexico

Introduction

As we already know, technology has advanced steeply, until reaching the point that using a simple chip in the cell phone we can be located immediately. Technology has advanced either for good or for bad. Every day engineers, technicians, system designers, create more complex and functional applications and tools that were unthinkable a short time ago. Initially I will define the instruments of research, mobile telephony, also called cellular telephony, basically consists of two large parts: a communications network (or mobile phone network) and terminals (or mobile phones). How did the history of mobile telephony begin? In 1973, Martin Cooper invented the first cell phone, initially large and expensive, only used by the military and some companies. By 1983 they were smaller and cheaper and could be used by the public.

At present, it is familiar to assume that telecommunications are essential for the economic development of countries since they facilitate the flow of information and contribute to the smooth development of business processes. It is also part of a growing consensus to point out that, in emerging countries, mobile telephony is gradually becoming the main form of distance communication. In a clear advantage of other means such as fixed telephony and the Internet, mobile telephony has proven to offer greater access facilities for groups that previously lacked the possibility. Establishing telephone communication and greater technological versatility to offer combined services such as sending text messages and access to information online, without counting other services such as the use of the telephone device as a photographic camera or as a music player.

In Mexico, as in the case of other developing countries, mobile telephony has come to feed the expectation of achieving universal access to telecommunications services. The preceding is conceived as an aspect of a positive sign in economic terms given the impact it may have on attracting significant investments, the efficiency of productive activities, specifically the reduction of unemployment and the reduction of business operating costs. Taking into account the relationship between the economic impact of telecommunications and the prominence of mobile telephony today, the dissertation that follows develops two main objectives, namely, determine what are the challenges faced by mobile telephony in Mexico and elucidate what can be some public policy recommendations to face these challenges.

Cellular Telephony in the national context

This section presents the evolution of Cellular Telephony in Mexico. At first, both the technological evolution and services within the Industry are exposed, as well as the evolution of the different companies that have made possible what we know up to now and which are currently identified as Telcel, Telefónica, Iusacell, and Unefon. Already in a second moment, the stages of regulation are addressed. The evolution of Cellular Telephony in Mexico was divided into two stages: its emergence and its development.

In 1988 Radiomóvil Dipsa, which would adopt the commercial name of Telcel (at that time a subsidiary company of Teléfonos de México), intended to introduce the service before any other company in the country, in Tijuana, Baja California. However, Industrias Unidas, S. A. (Iusacell) stopped that intention by bringing judicial protection, where it warned that the only concessionaire in mobile radiotelephony was SOS, a subsidiary of Industrias Unidas. This company argued that they obtained since 1957, together with the concession for the exploitation of the rural radiotelephony service in 65% of the national territory (27 cities), permission to operate mobile radiotelephony. It was in this way that the Iusacell company was formed, which began to provide the service at the end of 1989, before any other competitor.

Challenges of Cellular Telephony in Mexico

As stated previously, it is a shared criterion (Oestmann, 2003, Stephens, Boyd & Galarza, 2005) that in developing countries cellular technology is presented as a substitute for fixed telephony services, becoming a source of services for urban and rural groups previously excluded from access to this means of communication. In this regard, those who defend this idea point out that mobile telephony has come to offer hope for the achievement of universal service and universal access. 7 Similarly, mobile telephony has improved the connectivity conditions of the sectors that previously had with the telephone service fixed. The aforementioned defines the main challenges that mobile telephony must face in Mexico, namely, how to extend services to social groups that still lack access and how to contribute to the consolidation of services that add value to the connectivity of the sectors that already count with access. In a disaggregated manner, the first of these two challenges can be translated as the need to implement initiatives aimed at increasing the penetration of the mobile telephony market in the economically less favored sectors of the economy. The main public policy recommendations that are offered are related to two aspects closely linked. On the one hand, the need for contribute to the expansion of connectivity to the poorest sectors of the population; on the other, the need to develop strategies for the consolidation of services that add value to the connectivity of the sectors that already have access.

The expansion of connectivity to the poorest sectors of the population and the need to promote geographical expansion in the use of mobile telephony are related to adjustments in regulatory policy and the promotion of development policies. The first aspect to be considered with the connectivity of the lower income sectors is the one related to the adjustments in the regulatory policy and the promotion of development policies for the sector. The adjustment of the regulatory policy for the sector was related to the correction of the failures that it has had up to now. The first of these elements is the strengthening of the regulatory entity. The second is the adjustment of the regulatory framework. The third is the creation of optimal conditions for the development of the sector. As regards the generation of a development policy for the sector, the design of cell expansion plans, the implementation of a system of cross-subsidies and the granting of additional incentives for investment projects of high impact for the public. Mobile usage in the higher education population in Mexico. In the Latin American and Mexican context, higher education is a factor of differentiation, by what the university student represents an elite of a smaller percentage of the entire population, so that the one who does not have access, results an exclusion group.

However, within this privileged group that accesses higher education in Mexico, there is still a difference in this social group between "connected" and "not connected", among those who have access to the world of information and knowledge through the network and those that do not. But even more so those who own a cell phone device and those who do not have it. Countries like Mexico have a problem of the gap digital is added to poverty, marginalization, selective access to higher education leads to the exclusion of young people from this new communicative ecosystem It is evident that the social impact that leads to new technologies also exists, although in a lower percentage, a factor that reveals a division between those connected and those who do not have a possibility of access the information age through these sophisticated devices and equipment such as the telephone and / or the Internet terminal. The cheapening of these technologies and the discovery of young people as a potential market, will soon make it possible for almost all university students to access Information and Communications Technology.

The use of the cell phone has come to transform ways of life, everyday life and routines, some of these is that: the cell phone always keeps young people identifiable, (this for the benefit of parents), it is a security device (emergency calls) ), but even more in the young people is a way of status (good and for the not so young), the reflection goes beyond the symbolic, among the "kids" the cell phone is fashionable, you have to listen to the music they put on it so that it sounds like a call, in short, this work is the initial foundation of a research, which aims to deepen through the application of various instruments, which will allow us to measure with greater rigor the real impact of mobile telephony and the internet in the academic and social environment of our university students. Mexico and their social issues with mobile technology. A group of Mexican and foreign scientists and scientists carried out a project called SenseCityVity in Guanajuato to study the social environment through mobile technologies, to solve problems that arise in the communities. The team was composed of researchers from the Potosino Institute for Scientific and Technological Research (Ipicyt) and the Idiap Research Institute of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, in Switzerland, reported the Agency of the Conacyt.

The project focused on technical and social design, as well as on the development and execution of experiments on participatory mobile detection and crowdsourcing (open collaboration), in conjunction with student volunteers from a technical secondary school. Those responsible for the research are doctors Salvador Ruiz Correa, in Mexico, and Daniel Gatica-Pérez, in Switzerland. "We went out with students from a school in Guanajuato to take photographs, videos, audio and voice notes, documenting what was being done to realize the urban problems of the city. "Our work has several purposes: on the one hand, the social, academic aspects because once the data were collected, methods of scientific visualization, statistics, and social control were used," explained Dr. Ruiz Correa. The project involved 177 students from the Center for Scientific and Technological Studies of the State of Guanajuato, organized into groups of 10 people, consisting of seven students, two parents, and a teacher, who collected the data for 12 weeks. The results were applied to qualitative and quantitative analyzes; they were mapped with statistical estimation techniques, to reflect the urban concerns.

In this map, the main areas of citizen concern are the traditional neighborhoods, squares, historical alleys, and centric avenues. The problems were divided into three main categories: the image of the city, infrastructure, and life. The highest incidence was the lack of trash bins and the location of those that are available, as well as the presence of non-artistic graffiti and the infrastructure used. Ruiz Correa said that these investigations that involve citizens tend to propose solutions to social problems, both for the authorities and for the generation of awareness among the people. "What we are trying to do is not only scientific research to quantify what happens in a city in the urban environment, but the citizens themselves help us to think about how to do the study and how to propose the solution, thus becoming a triangle between the citizen, the academy and the government, "he explained.

For his part, Dr. Daniel Gatica-Perez stressed that in this research the potential was citizen participation because it allows through mobile technology to document and reflect on urban problems, in this case of Guanajuato. "The work that has been developed has only been possible thanks to the interest and participation of citizens, in this case of the young students who have collaborated so enthusiastically," he said. Gatica-Pérez added that the results would set the tone to begin extending this framework to other cities in Mexico.