Cofetel’s sanctions against Telmex approved

The Mexican parliament has approved telecoms regulator Cofetel’s proposals to launch punitive proceedings against fixed line provider Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) for violating various sections of the Federal Telecommunications Act, reports El Universal. Cofetel has made five recommendations for sanctions, two of which stem from Telmex failing to provide the required information for the delivery of private circuits and links to other telecoms service providers. The other three proposals relate to Telmex not keeping records of communications made over its lines, and failing to provide requested information to the Attorney General’s Office. Under law, telcos’ records must include data to trace and identify the source and destination of communications, and be kept for twelve months; operators are required to submit, within 72 hours of a request, data to the Attorney General’s Office for the purposes of criminal investigations. Cofetel also proposed to raise the financial penalties for failing to keep data records and provide information on communications, as it said the current levels of applicable fines do not act as effective motivation for operators to meet their obligations.