Salinas's Totalplay eyes Mexico wholesale network

Totalplay, the pay TV, Internet and fixed-line company owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, is considering participating in an upcoming tender for a US$7 billion wholesale mobile network, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

The planned network, which is written into Mexico's constitution, will have use of valuable spectrum and aims to sell capacity to mobile companies such as Telefonica and AT&T .

Though Totalplay is still relatively small, with 200,000 residential subscribers in Mexico and 50,000 business and government clients, Chief Executive Eduardo Kuri said in an interview that it could be involved in building the network.

Kuri added that the company, which competes with Grupo Televisa as well as Carlos Slim's America Movil , wants to understand the project further before deciding whether to participate.