Extortions lead Mexico to cut cellphones

Tens of millions of Mexicans could find their cellphones disconnected this weekend if the government goes ahead with a new law meant to fight crime by forcing people to register their identities. Advertisements on government radio and television have been urging Mexicans for weeks to register their cellphones by sending their personal details as a text message, but on Thursday 30 million lines remained unregistered as the Saturday deadline neared.
Analysts said that any related losses for Mexico's largest wireless operator, America Movil, would be tiny relative to the company's overall sales. Most of Mexico's 84 million mobile phones are prepaid handsets with a limited number of minutes of use that can be easily bought in stores. The phones can be topped up with more minutes through street corner vendors.
Imagine how many money could lose Telcel, Movistar, Lusacell, andm any other brands we don’t know. Also this will create a lot of disorder in the stores, people asking for service and attention to their situations.
America Movil has 71 percent of Mexico's wireless market, together with operations in Brazil, Chile and other countries in the region. Most of the rest of Mexico's cellphone market is in the hands of a company in Spain.
This week, senators refused requests from telephone companies to extend the deadline for a year, but discussions were ongoing and a last-minute vote could not be ruled out. The Reforma newspaper reported that a judge refused to give Telcel an injunction to stop the deadline.
I don’t think this is a good idea because anyway extortions will continue meanwhile cellphones keep in bad guys’ hands. It is true that many of these calls come from jail on those people would not be able to keep calling, but lets be realistic, we are in a country were corruption is everywhere, how much time will elapse from the cancellation of this cellphones systems to a man to take a phone to a guy in jail, how much for 20 cases of this type, how much for 100, faster than can we imagine.