At a planning meeting where Communications and Transport Secretary Luis Téllez said there is a need for greater competition, the semiautonomous Federal Telecommunications Commission, or Cofetel, also announced it is working to convert the country´s radio and television from analog to digital. That move may come by the end of the year, beginning with radio on the northern border with the United States.

Commission member Ernesto Gil said digital radio signals in the United States already have begun to hamper radio service on the Mexican side of the border.

Téllez told Cofetel members and industry representatives that greater competition would allow more Mexicans access to opportunities provided by new technologies.

"Letting this new technology remain in just a few selective hands is something we do not want and are not going to allow," Téllez said.

Teléfonos de México SA, or Telmex, owned by the world´s second-richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim, controls more than 90 percent of the nation´s fixed phone lines, while his América Móvil SA provides about 70 percent of cell-phone service in Mexico. Telmex also dominates Internet service, with 1.8 million high-speed accounts.

In television, Grupo Televisa and TV Azteca control roughly 70 percent and 30 percent of the market, respectively.

Cable operators enjoy regional pay-TV monopolies, and a small number of companies control the radio industry.

Tackling monopolies in various industries was a key campaign promise of President Felipe Calderón, who took office on Dec. 1 with a pledge to create jobs and improve economic productivity.

Téllez had previously accused Cofetel of bowing to powerful telecoms companies and not looking out for consumers´ interests.

In remarks published in the Financial Times, he said the regulatory agency had not moved fast enough to open access to Telmex´s fixed-line network and had been too lenient with tariffs.

But Cofetel President Héctor Osuna Jaime told reporters after Tuesday´s meeting that any conflict was in the past.