In Mexico City, the unused cables collected and removed from the streets are equivalent to the distance between the capital and Quintana Roo. In June 2023, the capital government announced that, in agreement with internet and telephone companies, they would remove the cobwebs of cables. Since then, there has been an accumulated 1,606,467 meters of cables removed.
According to the Ciudad Sin Cables portal, of the Digital Agency for Public Innovation (ADIP), the cables add up to 26 tons of material collected in 8,039 interventions in all municipalities.
On July 3 of last year, the local administration signed an agreement with the National Chamber of the Electronic Industry of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (Canieti) and with the National Association of Telecommunications (Anatel), so that telecommunications service concessionaires would carry out work to organize, rearrange or remove unused cables or any other infrastructure of their property, installed on public roads.
At that time, the then head of Government, Martí Batres Guadarrama, pointed out that, with the agreement, Internet companies such as AT&T, Megacable, MCM Telecom, Izzi, Telmex and Totalplay, agreed to remove the wiring from those users who did not have their contract in force.
The agreement, whose duration is indefinite, states that the government and the companies adhering to Canieti and Anatel must establish the routes, dates and times of the technical tables, to define the areas to be intervened.
Through the ADIP portal, the parties involved schedule the dates and areas where they removed the cables. Each intervention carried out by the capital administration is mapped and supported by photographic evidence. For example, in the Cuauhtémoc municipality, only in the Roma Norte neighborhood, around 100 interventions carried out from July 2023 to date are mapped; in Peralvillo there are about 50; In the Centro area there are four, as well as in Morelos, to mention a few areas.
In addition to the CDMX government program, there are districts that collaborate in the removal of cabling. For example, on December 16, the Coyoacán mayor’s office reported that they removed 50 tons of cables from this area.
Despite this, complaints from neighbors persist about the excess of cables coming mainly from internet companies. The complainants affirm that there is no follow-up to the reports and, therefore, the materials remain in the streets or on the poles.
They only remove the cables from their company, which means we also have to call Telmex, Izzi or Telecomm, each company is only responsible for its own cables
Carlos Miguel, Resident of Benito Juárez
One of the neighborhoods that struggles with the number of telephone and Internet cables is Crédito Constructor, in the Benito Juárez municipality, which is not contemplated by ADIP in its cable removal plan.
Carlos Miguel, a resident of the neighborhood, said that the problem is similar to what happens in all municipalities: Internet companies add cables without removing the old ones and, when it is time to request the removal, no one takes responsibility for removing them.
“No one takes responsibility, on several occasions I asked Total Play to come and remove the cables, but they are as bureaucratic as the government. Example: they work through a “work order,” which specifies a specific location and not a street, meaning you have to tell them the street and the number and they will only remove the cables that are there, not one meter more or one meter less.
“In addition, they only (remove) those of their company, meaning we also have to call Telmex, Izzi or Telecomm, each company is only responsible for its own cables,” he explained.
He indicated that last year, the local government implemented a program to clean all the wiring, through Locatel and the Unified Citizen Attention System; but “for a change, it only remained in promises.”
Source: oem
