AMLO destroyed the IFT to benefit Slim

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While you read this on your phone, you just paid $37 pesos for every gigabyte you consume.

In Colombia they pay $3.40 pesos. In Peru, $7.65. In Uruguay, $4.76.

You, $37 pesos.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s the result of a series of political decisions that began in 2018 and ended in October 2025 with the extinction of Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Institute.

This is not a conspiracy theory. These are numbers. And when you connect them, the picture they form is unsettling.

The question nobody asks

Why is Mexico ranked 164th out of 233 countries in mobile data prices?

Mexico isn’t poorer than Colombia. It doesn’t have less infrastructure than Peru. It isn’t more isolated than Uruguay.

The difference comes down to one word: regulation.

Mexicans pay between 4 and 10 times more than the rest of Latin America. And most of them don’t even know it.

When the referee worked

The IFT (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones) wasn’t perfect. But it worked.

With the IFT (2013–2024):

• Telecommunications prices dropped 31.7% while general inflation rose 62.2%
• Telcel’s market share fell from 69% to 59% due to asymmetric regulation
• Mobile broadband grew from 27 million to 120 million lines
• For every peso spent running it, it generated $45.5 pesos in benefits for users

It wasn’t a cost. It was an investment that paid for itself 45 times over.

The key difference:

• The SCT (Transport and Communications Ministry) reports to the President. It’s part of the cabinet. Its decisions are political.
• The IFT was constitutionally autonomous. It didn’t answer to the President. Its decisions were supposed to be technical.

The difference between an independent referee and one who works for one of the teams.

Death by asphyxiation (2018–2025)

AMLO didn’t kill the IFT overnight. He killed it slowly:

• 2018–2024: Budget cut by -40% in real terms
• 2019–2023: Incomplete board for years (effectively inoperable)
• 2021: Last spectrum auction (IFT-10): 38 of 41 blocks went unsold. Operators said: “The spectrum is too expensive”
• October 2025: Official extinction. Replaced by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT), which answers to the government

The official argument: “Republican austerity. Why have two agencies when one will do?”

The real numbers: they destroyed the only body that pressured Congress to lower spectrum costs and penalized anti-competitive practices.

When competition worked too well

In 2022–2023, a carrier called Bait started disrupting the market:

20 GB for $200 pesos (when Telcel charged $300 for 3 GB)

The numbers:

• Q4 2022: +3.5 million users
• Q4 2023: +1.5 million users
• Reached more lines than Movistar

People were happy. For the first time in years, there was a cheap option that actually worked.

Then Carlos Slim complained publicly. He said Altán (the wholesale network Bait runs on) had “unfair competition” because it received subsidized spectrum.

And magically:

• The government pressured Altán to “make its model sustainable”
• Altán raised its wholesale prices
• Bait had to reduce the GB included in its plans
• Q2 2024: Bait only captured 400,000 users (vs. 1.5–3.5 million before)

Growth stopped dead.

Meanwhile, Altán started dropping service monthly, its speed fell from 15 Mbps to 11 Mbps, and frustrated users went back to Telcel.

The graveyard: when nobody wants your company

In a healthy market, companies have value. Someone wants to buy them.

In Mexico, nobody wants the telecom companies. Not even for free.

AT&T Mexico: Wants to sell at a fraction of its original investment. Apparently only Izzi has shown any interest. The rest of the market: silence.

Movistar: Wants out. Virgin Mobile offered $350 million USD (Telefónica’s own valuation: $609 million). Virgin looked at the real numbers and ran. Analyst quoted in Cronista: “Nobody would take it even as a gift — it costs more to operate than it generates.”

Virgin Mobile: Beyond ONE (a Dubai fund) bought Virgin in 2023 and tried to bundle it with Movistar for resale. It backed out when it saw the actual financials.

Altán: Bankrupt. Government bailout of $161 million USD in 2022. Drops service every month. Nobody wants to buy it.

Read that again: Four telecom companies. Zero interested buyers.

Some will say: “See! Foreign companies can’t beat Telcel. National pride!”

No.

When companies with capital, experience, and technology prefer losing money and leaving rather than competing in your country, that’s not pride. That’s a market engineered so only one player can win.

The numbers that make you think

There’s no secret recording. No signed document. But consider these numbers:

Carlos Slim’s fortune:

• March 2018 (start of AMLO’s term): $50–67 billion USD
• December 2023 (end of term): $101 billion USD
• It doubled during AMLO’s government

Public contracts:

• Slim’s companies received $61 billion pesos from the federal government
• Maya Train Segment 2 alone: $16 billion pesos

The meetings:

• Slim met privately with AMLO 19 times at the National Palace
• He is the businessman the President received most often

AMLO’s own quote (May 2022):

“Businesspeople have had profits, and there are businesspeople who have increased… have doubled their fortune.”

What happened:

• IFT extinct
• Spectrum still 2–3 times more expensive than in neighboring Latin American countries
• When Bait grew too fast, it was pressured to stop
• AT&T, Movistar, and Virgin are trying to leave
• Telcel consolidates its position

Is it a coincidence that all of this happened simultaneously?

Is it a coincidence that the only body regulating Telcel was destroyed during the same administration in which its owner doubled his fortune?

It can’t be stated as fact. But the numbers are there.

What this means for you

Many people will recommend Altán/Bait as “the affordable alternative.”

They’re right. Compared to Telcel, it’s cheaper.

But what they don’t know:

1. You’re still paying 3–4 times more than Colombia for worse service
2. Altán is bankrupt and its service gets worse every month
3. When it worked well, it was pressured to raise prices

It’s not foolish to use Altán. You’re a victim of a system designed so that even “the cheap option” is expensive.

And the saddest part: many people are satisfied with Altán because they don’t know it could be so much better.

Conclusion

López Obrador said eliminating the IFT was “republican austerity.”

The numbers say something else:

• The IFT generated $45.5 pesos of benefit for every peso spent on it
• Cutting its budget by 40% wasn’t austerity — it was sabotage
• Eliminating it entirely was removing the referee

And without a referee, the game is rigged.

You pay $37 pesos per GB. In Colombia they pay $3.40.

Not because Mexico is poorer. Because they destroyed the only institution pushing for you to pay less.

Sources: Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Cable.co.uk Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing 2024, Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, IFT Reports 2013–2024, OECD Study of Mexico’s Telecommunications Sector 2017, Expansión, El CEO, Xataka México, La Jornada, Reuters, El Financiero, Cronista