America Movil, the top telecom operator in Mexico — controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim — will invest $6 billion over the next three years to improve its mobile network.

The total Capex (capital expenditures) of America Movil reached 70.9 billion pesos in the first half of the year, the company said on Thursday announcing the Q2 financial result.

AT&T last month announced $3 billion investment plan in Mexico. The U.S. carrier, which entered the Mexican telecom market through an acquisition of two Mexican wireless operators, has nearly 6 million subscribers in Mexico, less than one tenth of America Movil’s 72 million.

U.S. carrier AT&T recently challenged America Movil, which may enter the Indian telecom market, by offering some subscribers free calls to and data in the United States. America Movil is currently talking with Indian telecoms to assess the business potential of India, which has around 900 million mobile subscriber base.

America Movil Chief Executive Officer Daniel Hajj told a new conference in Mexico that the telecom operator would eliminate roaming charges from Mexico to the United States for post-pay customers who opt to pay an extra 50 pesos ($3.16) per month.

The company hopes to do the same for prepay customers, which make up more than 80 percent of its Mexico subscriber base, and extend the deal to cover Canada.

Rivals AT&T, Telefonica and T-Mobile US have all also introduced new packages with free calls between Mexico and the U.S. this year.

Meanwhile, America Movil said its total user base rose 1.4 percent to 367.7 million access lines in June. This figure includes 288.8 million wireless subscribers, 34.6 million landlines, 22.8 million broadband accesses and 21.5 million PayTV units.

Wireless subscriber base of America Movil increased 0.8 percent and fixed RGUs increased 3.7 percent annually.

America Movil said its consolidated revenues totaled 220 billion pesos in the second quarter and EBITDA was 68.3 billion pesos.

Baburajan K
[email protected]