AT&T follows Telefónica out of Mexico with $2B sale

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(Source: Thomas Kyhn/Alamy Stock Photo)

The Mexican mobile market is going to look a lot different next year after AT&T and Telefónica complete the sales of their respective businesses in the country.

AT&T agreed to sell its operation, AT&T Mexico, to a consortium comprising local cable and broadcast company Grupo Televisa and investment firm Fintech Holdings for $2 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.

Shedding the Mexican business after more than ten years in the market will allow AT&T to focus capital investment on building out fiber and 5G connectivity in the US, according to the carrier.

AT&T Mexico is the second largest mobile operator in the country with 23.4 million subscribers at the end of June this year.

The deal follows Telefónica's long-awaited sale of Movistar in Mexico, announced in April. The Spanish operator is selling its Mexican business for $450 million to a consortium led by telecom-as-a-service platform provider Oxio and Newfoundland Capital Management. The transaction reportedly cleared a regulatory hurdle early this month with approval from Mexico's National Antitrust Commission but has not yet been finalized, according to El Economista.

Related:Oxio has big plans to reboot Movistar in Mexico

Movistar is Mexico's third mobile operator with 21.7 million customers and market share of approximately 16.6% at the end of 2025.

New challengers

The M&A activity leaves Mexico's biggest telco América Móvil still dominant but facing competitors energized with new owners and one with much larger scale. América Móvil's mobile brand Telcel leaves its two main rivals in the distance with 84.5 million customers at the end of June this year.

Televisa is the country's largest cable operator and provides satellite pay TV services via Sky, after acquiring the remaining shares it did not already own from AT&T in 2024. It is also the world's largest producer of Spanish language content, according to Reuters. AT&T Mexico will add a wireless subscriber base into the mix.

As Reuters reported, a research note from Scotiabank described the AT&T Mexico deal as a "bargain" for Televisa that will make it a bigger player in telecoms and take its share of fixed and wireless customers in the market from 8% to 19%. The research note said the low price and involvement of Fintech is "bad news" for América Móvil because "the new owners can focus more resources in capex," as Reuters reported.

Televisa will have a 50% share in the company taking over AT&T Mexico.

Meanwhile, Movistar's new owners plan to put to work Oxio's data-monetizing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model introducing a different way to compete. Movistar is practically an MVNO already with its own core network since it agreed a wholesale access deal with AT&T Mexico in 2019. It has migrated its mobile traffic onto AT&T's network, returned its spectrum licenses and switched off radio access sites.

Related:Why AT&T is relinquishing spectrum in Mexico

AT&T entered the Mexican market in 2015 via the purchases of Iusacell and, later, Nextel Mexico. It has reportedly been working on a sale of the assets since August last year, according to Bloomberg. The carrier was reported to be near a deal with Televisa in December last year.

AT&T and Grupo Televisa have done M&A before. The US carrier sold its minority stake in Sky Mexico to Televisa in 2024.

In a statement about the deal, AT&T said: "We believe that these partners are well positioned to lead AT&T Mexico through its next phase of growth. Grupo Televisa has a strong operating presence in Mexico with its fixed-line broadband business, and Fintech Holdings brings fresh capital, local knowledge, and operational expertise in the Mexican wireless sector."

For AT&T, CEO John Stankey said the move "is consistent with our long-term strategy to focus our capital allocation on opportunities for growth in the vibrant U.S. market."

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