The plenary session of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) approved the General Administrative Provisions to allow telecommunications industry service providers access to facilities and rights-of-way of the National Electric System (the “Provisions”).
The approval of the Provisions seeks to promote fair and transparent competition by allowing Telecommunications Service Providers (“TSPs”) access to the more than 11 million poles of the Federal Electricity Commission (“CFE”), which in principle will result in an increase in the coverage of telecommunications services.
Unlike the access conditions that currently operate according to the guidelines prepared by the CFE in which the number of cables that can be deployed is considered as the only criterion, with the new Provisions, access to CFE poles is based on objective criteria based on the weight and space that the infrastructure installed by the PSTs will occupy on both sides of the pole, which will allow the installation of a greater number of cables.
Likewise, the contributions to be paid by the TSPs for the use of the poles will now be based on the weight of the infrastructure installed on the poles.
In accordance with the provisions of the Provisions, CFE’s distribution area must create an electronic system to attend to requests for access to poles in an agile and expeditious manner, through clear procedures and defined times, which will facilitate the procedures for TSPs and provide them with certainty in their requests.
The Provisions seek to ensure better use of the infrastructure, therefore, provisions were included to prohibit practices that limit access capacity to the poles. The Provisions will become effective on January 1, 2019.
