The process is too complicated. It needs a fresh look.
En México, la obligación de registrar cada línea móvil con identidad verificada enfrenta su prueba más difícil no en la ley, sino en la práctica: Carlos Slim, el hombre que controla la mayor parte de la infraestructura telefónica del país, ha pedido públicamente que el proceso sea repensado antes de que el plazo del 30 de junio deje a millones sin servicio. Su llamado no es una resistencia al mandato, sino un recordatorio de que las políticas bien intencionadas pueden fracasar cuando la realidad operativa no fue contemplada en su diseño. En el fondo, es la tensión de siempre entre la ambición regulatoria y la capacidad humana e institucional de ejecutarla.
- El reloj corre hacia el 30 de junio y millones de usuarios de prepago aún no han completado el registro obligatorio, con la suspensión de su línea como consecuencia directa.
- Mientras los clientes de pospago pasaron casi sin fricción —sus datos ya existían en los sistemas—, los usuarios de prepago enfrentan una burocracia para la que ni ellos ni los operadores estaban preparados.
- Slim advierte que el sistema está colapsando bajo su propio peso: el volumen de registros supera la capacidad instalada de atención, y el plazo no da margen para corregir el rumbo.
- Su pedido de una 'reestudiadita' abre la puerta a una revisión del modelo, pero el tiempo para rediseñar el proceso antes del vencimiento es escaso y la presión política para mantener la fecha es alta.
- En paralelo, la industria mira hacia adelante: la sustitución de 400,000 líneas de cobre por fibra óptica para 2027 muestra que la modernización del sector avanza, aunque tropezando con sus propias contradicciones regulatorias.
Carlos Slim aprovechó su conferencia anual para lanzar una crítica directa al sistema de registro obligatorio de líneas móviles en México: el proceso, dijo, es demasiado complicado y necesita una revisión profunda. No cuestionó el objetivo —vincular cada línea activa a una identidad real mediante nombre, CURP e identificación oficial— sino la forma en que fue diseñado para ejecutarse.
El mandato tiene una lógica clara: eliminar el anonimato en las comunicaciones móviles. El plazo es el 30 de junio de 2026, y cualquier línea sin registrar será suspendida. El problema es que la realidad del mercado no es uniforme. Para los usuarios de pospago, el trámite fue casi invisible: sus datos ya estaban en los sistemas desde el momento de la contratación. Pero el mercado de prepago —donde millones de personas compran saldo sin haber entregado información personal detallada— se convirtió en un cuello de botella que nadie dimensionó correctamente.
Lo que Slim describió, con su habitual pragmatismo, es una brecha entre la ambición del decreto y la capacidad operativa real: personal de atención sin la preparación suficiente, infraestructura de registro que no escala al volumen requerido, y un calendario que no contempló el peso de la demanda acumulada.
Sus comentarios llegaron en medio de una conversación más amplia sobre el futuro del sector. Slim anunció planes para reemplazar unas 400,000 líneas de cobre con fibra óptica antes de 2027, una señal de confianza en el largo plazo. También reflexionó sobre la salida de Telefónica de varios mercados latinoamericanos, atribuyéndola en parte al alto costo de las licencias de espectro —un problema estructural que desincentiva la inversión sostenida en la región.
Con el plazo acercándose y millones de registros pendientes, la pregunta ya no es solo si se cumplirá la fecha, sino si el sistema tal como está diseñado puede cumplir su propio propósito.
Carlos Slim Helú sat down at his annual conference with a straightforward complaint: Mexico's mandatory mobile phone registration system is broken, or at least broken enough to warrant a serious rethink. The billionaire who controls América Móvil and its subsidiary Telcel didn't mince words. The process, he said, is too complicated. It needs what he called a "reestudiadita"—a fresh look—to make it actually work for both customers and the government trying to enforce it.
The registration requirement itself is simple in concept. Every active mobile line in Mexico must be linked to the user's real identity: name, CURP identification number, official ID. No anonymous phones. The deadline is June 30, 2026. After that date, any line that hasn't been registered will be suspended. It's a sweeping mandate affecting millions of people across the country, and it's already in motion. Millions of registrations are being processed, Slim acknowledged, though he didn't specify how many have flowed through Telcel's systems.
But the devil, as always, lives in the details. The registration process works reasonably well for postpaid customers—those on monthly plans who already provided their information when they signed up for service. For them, the bureaucratic lift is minimal. The real jam is in the prepaid market, where users buy minutes or data as they go, often without providing extensive personal information upfront. Getting those millions of prepaid customers through the registration gauntlet has proven far more cumbersome than anyone anticipated. Slim pointed out that the timeline itself compounds the problem. The window is too narrow. Even the carriers moving at a decent pace are getting backed up because the whole system is moving slowly under the weight of the demand.
What Slim was really saying, beneath the diplomatic language, is that the government set an ambitious deadline without fully accounting for the operational reality on the ground. The infrastructure to process this many registrations, the training for retail staff, the customer service capacity—none of it was scaled to handle the volume. And now, with the clock ticking toward the end of June, both the telecom companies and their customers are feeling the squeeze.
Slim's comments came during a broader discussion of Mexico's telecom future. He outlined plans to rip out roughly 400,000 copper lines from the network and replace them with fiber optic infrastructure by next year. It's a modernization push that signals confidence in the sector's long-term trajectory, even as the immediate regulatory environment creates headaches. He also reflected on the departure of Telefónica from much of Latin America, including Mexico. The Spanish carrier, once a regional powerhouse, has been selling off assets across the continent—Argentina, Peru, Chile—and is now focused on holding its ground in Brazil. Slim attributed the exits partly to the high cost of spectrum licenses in these markets, a structural problem that makes it harder for some players to justify continued investment.
The registration deadline looms. Millions of prepaid users still need to complete the process. The carriers are working through the backlog. And now, with Slim's public call for a simpler system, there's at least a conversation happening about whether the current approach is sustainable or whether a redesign might actually serve everyone better.
Notable Quotes
The registration is very complicated. I think they should take another look at it to make it more effective for the customer's convenience and the authority's convenience.— Carlos Slim Helú, president emeritus of América Móvil and Grupo Carso
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the registration process work so differently for prepaid versus postpaid customers?
Postpaid customers already handed over their identity information when they signed the contract. It's already in the system. Prepaid is different—people buy minutes without formal enrollment, so there's no existing database to link. You have to reach them individually, often in person, and collect everything from scratch. That's where the bottleneck is.
And Slim thinks the deadline is the real problem?
Not just the deadline. He's saying the deadline is too tight given the operational capacity. You can't process millions of registrations smoothly when the infrastructure and staffing weren't built for that volume. It's not a technical impossibility—it's a planning failure.
What happens if someone doesn't register by June 30?
Their line gets suspended. Complete shutdown. It's a hard cutoff, which is why the pressure is so intense right now.
Does Slim have a solution, or is he just complaining?
He's calling for a review of the whole scheme—simpler procedures, a more realistic timeline. He's not saying scrap it. He's saying make it actually workable.
Is this a problem unique to Mexico?
No, but Mexico's doing it at scale and with a tight deadline. Other countries have done similar registrations, but usually with more time and more flexibility built in.
What's the government's goal here?
Eliminate anonymity in the telecom system. No more untraceable phones. It's a security and regulatory objective, but the execution is what's causing friction.