AT&T Closes Deal

AT&T closed its $2.5 billion deal to acquire Mexico telecom Iusacell on Friday. This makes AT&T the first North American mobile carrier to run in the U.S. and Mexico. The company also announced its appointment of F. Thaddeus Arroyo as chief executive of Iusacell. Arroyo has been with AT&T for 19 years, and was previously president of the technology department, and CIO before that, according to Reuters. Iusacell is still a distant third in the lineup of Mexican telecoms, but their network covers approximately 120 people. “Our acquisition of Iusacell is a direct result of the reforms put in place by President Peña Nieto to encourage more competition and more investment in Mexico. Those reforms together with the country’s strong economic outlook, growing population and growing middle class make Mexico an attractive place to invest,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement back in November. “Mexico is still in the early stages of mobile Internet capabilities and adoption, but customer demand for it is growing rapidly,” Stephenson said. “This is an opportunity for us to provide Iusacell the financial resources, scale and expertise to accelerate the roll-out of world-class mobile Internet speeds and quality in Mexico, like we have in the United States.”