Internet in Mexico

Mexico has approximately 70 million Internet users and is currently experiencing a huge surge in demand for broadband Internet services. Mexico is the country with the most Internet users among Spanish speaking counties in the western hemisphere, and in August 2005 Cisco Systems, the industry leader in Internet backbone routing equipment, said they see Mexico and countries in Latin America as the focal point for growth in coming years, with Mexico receiving the biggest chunk of their investments, identifying it as a hypergrowth market for equipment suppliers. Additionally looking at the historical growth for the period from 2001 to 2005 we see broadband Internet jump from 0.1 subscribers per hundred population to 2.2 subscribers per hundred population, a growth of 2100% in just five years.^[1]

Telmex has a de facto monopoly in providing (A)DSL connectivity. After being converted from a state monopoly to a private monopoly by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1990 it took the Mexican Government 5 years to establish regulations in the Telecommunications Act and only then competitors were allowed to enter the Mexican telecommunication market, leaving Telmex' and its owner Carlos Slim enough time to extend their technological lead. Nevertheless, Mexico is lagging behind the world average in connection speeds.

Mexico is one of the few Latin American countries that has little or no Internet censorship. However, increasing threats and violence against media outlets, reporters, and bloggers related to drugs and drug trafficking leads to self-censorship by the press and by individuals.

Broadband ISPs

ADSL

ISPs that provide ADSL:

• Telmex -Telmex

  Telmex started selling ISDN connections under the Prodigy Turbo brand name in the mid '90s. The service was then replaced for a few years with ADSL connections sold under the Prodigy Infinitum brand name. ADSL is now being offered under the Telmex brand name directly.

• Terra - Terra Also provided by Telmex under Terra brand.
• Alestra - Alestra
• Maxcom - Maxcom

Cable

• Cablevisión Cablevisión Digital

Packages include TV, Telephone and Internet services.

• Megacable MegaRed Available in more cities across the country.

• Telecable Cybercable

FTTH

Recently there's been a big push towards fiber in the 3 big cities in Mexico (Mexico City, Guadalajara & Monterrey) and they offer up to 100 Mbit/s links, both synchronous and asynchronous. These services are being provided by:

• Axtel Axtel Extremo
• Iusacell Iusacell Enlace
• Telmex Fibra Óptica de Telmex
• TotalPlay (subsidiary of Iusacell and also a quadruple-play provider) TotalPlay

WiMax

ISPs that provide Wimax Technology:

• AXTEL (ISP) -Acceso Universal Provided by AXTEL

  AXTEL started selling Wimax connections at the beginning of 2008. The service has been rebranded and named Acceso Universal.

Wireless (non-cellular)

• E-Go (MMDS) provided service in Monterrey, Guadalajara, Toluca & Mexico City until the Secretaria de Telecomunicaciones y Transportes revoked its license to operate the 2.5 GHz spectrum^[10]
• SupernetMX provided service in Chetumal, Bacalar, Calderitas, Huay pix & Xul Ha Website does not resolve to any server. Apparently the company no longer exists.
• Ultranet2Go (WiMax) provides service in Puebla, Tamaulipas, Veracruz & Aguascalientes^[11] with plans ranging from 249 pesos to 999 Pesos^[12]

Wireless (cellular)

• Telcel Telcel 3G (HSDPA+)
• Iusacell Iusacell 3G evolution Hybrid CDMA/GSM HSDPA-HSPA+ network
• Movistar (GPRS/EDGE/3G-HSDPA+)^[13]
• Telcel^[14]
• Movistar^[15]
• Iusacell^[16]

Internet censorship

Mexican law provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups can engage in the expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.^[17] The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) found no evidence of Internet filtering in 2011.^[18] Mexico was classified as "partly free" in the Freedom on the Net 2011 report from Freedom House.^[19]

Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) exercise an increasing influence over media outlets and reporters, at times directly threatening individuals who published critical views of crime groups. As citizens increasingly use social media Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook to obtain and share drug-related news, violence against the users of these sites is rising dramatically.^[17] The threats and violence lead to self-censorship in many cases.^[20]

Two states introduced new restrictions on the use of social media. In August 2011 Veracruz officials arrested Gilberto Martinez Vera and Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola for allegedly spreading rumors of violence on Twitter. They were released following protests from civil society groups, but the state created a new “public disturbance” offense for use in similar cases in the future. Similarly, the state of Tabasco outlawed telephone calls or social network postings that could provoke panic. Civil society groups feared that the laws could be used to curb freedom of expression online.^[17]

On September 24, 2011 police in Nuevo Laredo found the headless body of a female journalist who wrote on TCO activity as an online blogger under the pseudonym of “La Nena de Laredo” (“Laredo Girl”). Two other Nuevo Laredo-based bloggers were allegedly tortured and killed by TCOs in September and November, again in retaliation for posting comments on the Internet about local drug cartels.^[17]

In May 2009, the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), asked YouTube to remove a parody of Fidel Herrera, governor of the state of Veracruz. Negative advertising in political campaigns is prohibited by present law, although the video appears to be made by a regular citizen which would make it legal. It was the first time a Mexican institution intervened directly with the Internet.^[19][21]

References

v t e Censorship Media regulation Books (books banned) Films (banned films) Internet circumvention Music Post Press Radio Speech and expression Thought Video games Methods Bleeping Book burning Broadcast delay Burying of scholars Censor bars Chilling effect Concision Conspiracy of silence Content-control software Euphemism Minced oath Expurgation Fogging Gag order Heckling Heckler's veto Internet police Memory hole National intranet Newspaper theft Pixelization Prior restraint Propaganda Purge Revisionism Sanitization Self-censorship Speech code Strategic lawsuit Surveillance computer & network mass Verbal offence Whitewashing Word filtering Damnatio memoriae Contexts Blasphemy Criminal Corporate Hate speech Ideological Media bias Moralistic fallacy Naturalistic fallacy Politics Religious (Islamic) Suppression of dissent Systemic bias By country Censorship Freedom of speech Internet censorship Wikiquote Wikisource Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wiktionary Wikibooks