Mexico’s IFT (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones) has awarded China Unicom a 30-year operating licence, reports El Economista.
CommsUpdate reports that the IFT received the operator’s application for a licence in March this year, and approved it in July. The regulator has only now gone public with the decision.
While the permit will allow Unicom to enter both the fixed and mobile markets in Mexico, El Economista reports that the operator aims to begin its operations in Mexico with a focus on dedicated links and data transmission capacity in the enterprise space, with an eye towards expanding into developing fibre optic networks.
China Unicom has around 155 million customers in China. In January 2022, the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) revoked its permit to operate in the US, and last month named the operator as a threat to national security, arguing that the Chinese government has direct control over the firm.