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By Elinor Comlay and Tomás Sarmiento
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Grupo Televisa is launching a new fixed-price package for an unlimited home phone and Internet service in an effort to snap up customers from billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil.
The package, which combines broadband with unlimited calls to fixed lines and mobiles within Mexico, the United States, Canada, Latin America and Europe, will launch in Mexico City next month for 400 Mexican pesos (18.77 pounds), vice president for telecommunications Adolfo Lagos told Reuters in an interview.
Mexico's telecom reform, which has increased restrictions on dominant market players such as America Movil in telecoms and Televisa in broadcasting, is key to the launch, Lagos said.
"Now there are asymmetric tariffs and the 'club effect' has gone, so the biggest player can no longer take advantage of their size and make special deals," said Lagos. "Now we have a much more even playing field."
Televisa's phone and Internet network could reach 10.2 million homes in Mexico and it currently has a penetration of about 40 percent of those, Lagos said.
"I think this product will have a massive take-up," he said, declining to give any detailed projections.
"There is an unmet demand here. There's a lack of connectivity that's almost scandalous... and I think that now there are the conditions for that to change," Lagos said.
Televisa currently has about an 8 percent participation in Mexico's phone market, compared with America Movil's more than 60 percent.
MOBILE PLANS
Televisa, which recently sold its $717 million stake in mobile network Iusacell to Grupo Salinas at a hefty loss, is planning to focus on its fixed-line offering in the near term, Lagos said.
The proceeds from the Iusacell sale will be directed towards providing network improvements to support sales of the new fixed-line packaged plan, known as Izzi.
Televisa has already spent $250 million this year upgrading its existing network, Lagos said.
"In the next two years, I'd like to see that our network is the most important in the country... our coverage has to get closer to 90 percent of Mexico. Right now we're below 50 percent, and that's a priority," he said.
Getting back into mobile phone services is something that Televisa is still considering but "at the right time," Lagos said, noting the focus for next year will be on the fixed-line network.
Televisa Executive Vice President Alfonso de Angoitia last week said on a call with analysts that the company is "exploring its options in mobile."
Separately, Lagos said he had no knowledge of any negotiations between Televisa and U.S. phone company AT&T regarding the possible sale of its stake in satellite-television company Sky in Mexico.
(Reporting by Elinor Comlay and Tomas Sarmiento; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)