Merger with Unefon
The company was partially owned by Grupo Salinas and Mexican media group Televisa, and its network was CDMA only, using no analog base stations.
In March 2007, Grupo Salinas announced its intention to merge Iusacell with Unefon Holdings. Unefon was a wireless telephony operator focused on Mexico's mass market.
The resulting company had over 3.4 million subscribers, equivalent to approximately 7% of the wireless telecommunications market in Mexico.
The combined Iusacell and Unefon was the first wireless cellular service provider in the country with a third-generation platform (3G CDMA EVDO) that gave users access to a wide range of other telecommunications services and multimedia applications, making the mobile network an efficient vehicle for data transmission and value added services besides voice.
In 2007, the merger of Unefon and Iusacell was announced.[8][9][10][11]
On November 15, 2010, Iusacell launched their HSPA+ network with speeds up to 21 Mbit/s. Similar to U.S. carrier T-Mobile US, it branded its HSPA+ network as "4G."
Starting 2010, Unefon started to use GSM technology and started sharing Iusacell stations and network.
However, on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, Cofetel temporarily refused to approve a merger between Televisa and Iusacell for illegal damage to third parties and hindering competition for open and pay television. This refusal continued until 2012 with Televisa and TV Azteca against Grupo Carso. Eventually, the merger was accepted with different conditions, among which allowing any company advertising time without condition, prohibiting the staff of Grupo Televisa and Grupo Salinas from hindering a developing third television network, and if not achieved within two years, undo the merger. With 8.2 million users at the time, the company also offered local and long-distance service, as well as wireless and fiber optic Internet. Fiber is available only in some neighborhoods of Mexico City and the states of Jalisco and Nuevo León. These services are offered under the brand Iusatel, messaging services (SMS, MMS, and email), mobile TV and mobile broadband (with your brand BAM). On Friday November 7, 2014 the US company AT&T announced the acquisition of Iusacell for 2.5 billion, including debt.[12]
In September 2014, it was announced that Grupo Salinas would acquire Televisa's 50 percent stake in Iusacell for a fee of $717 million.[13] On January 8, 2015, Grupo Televisa announced that the sale of its 50 percent stake had been completed.[14]
Unefon remains as a brand used by AT&T Mexico, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc., used for prepaid products.
Merger of Iusacell and Nextel into AT&T
In November 2014, AT&T announced it would acquire Iusacell for US$2.5 billion from Grupo Salinas.[15] The price includes $800 million in debt.[15] Under the terms of the agreement, AT&T would acquire all of Iusacell's wireless properties, including licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 8.6 million subscribers. The purchase was completed on January 16, 2015.[16] On January 30, 2015, AT&T announced the purchase of Nextel Mexico for $1.875 billion from NII Holdings, excluding financial debts. The transaction was completed and approved by the Federal Telecommunications Institute in Mexico and the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New York on April 30, 2015.[17] AT&T launched several new plans on August 24, 2015, under the AT&T brand and began renaming Iusacell and Nextel stores in a process that was completed by the end of 2016. AT&T invested an additional $3 billion in Mexico through 2018 to expand its high-speed mobile broadband coverage to 100 million people, The company currently holds the largest amount of spectrum in the country. While gradually moving the Nextel and Iusacell brands to AT&T premium services, AT&T intended to keep the Unefon brand, which was part of Iusacell, for low-end prepaid users.
