For years, Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias A.C. (TIC AC), Mexico s fourth largest cell phone operator, has been fighting to provide telecommunications services to the most disadvantaged people in Mexico, specifically the 18 Indigenous communities that form part of it. Now TIC AC, backed by Rhizomatica and Redes por la Diversidad, Equidad y Sustentabilidad A.C., organisations that help communities build and manage their own low-cost, open-source communications infrastructure, is celebrating a historic victory: exemption from paying fees for the use of radio spectrum.
Since 2016, when they won their first radio spectrum concession, these non-profit organisations have faced various obstacles as well as discrimination. Had it not been for the tenacity they have shown in court, the process would not have resulted in this victory, says Carlos Rey-Moreno, local access policy and regulation coordinator for APC’s community networks project. There were moments that seemed insu