Telcel has about 70% of mobile customers and landline company Telmex has about 80% market share.
Slim's Telmex controls 80 percent of Mexican landlines and 70 percent of the mobile-phone market.
Another minister was godmother to a child of Telmex's top legal official, Javier Mondragon.
Mr. Slim bought Mexico's state-run phone company, Telmex, in 1990, whipping it into shape.
Telmex lowered the price of calls to mobiles (thereby probably reducing the national inflation rate).
And Telmex's supporters point out that its rivals hardly lack their own local political connections.
Mexican telephone company Telmex SAB said it had no reports of damage to its phone system.
Defenders of Telmex thus have little sympathy for its competitors' cries of unfair treatment.
Telmex is still the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico, two decades after Slim took it private.
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His second-largest holding, Carso Global Telecom, which controls ubiquitous fixed-line operator Telmex, has jumped 15% in that time.
TELMEX, it ruled, had not complied with the interoperability, portability and interconnection conditions specified to lift the prohibition.
Until two years ago, the telephone regulator Cofetel was so cowed by Telmex it was jokingly called Cofetelmex.
The Telmex offer, which has been approved by Mexican regulators, is very likely to come through, according to analysts.
Slim, who owns telecommunications firm Telmex and a racing team, was reported to be one of four interested parties.
More than two decades later, Telcel still controls 70% of the country's wireless market and Telmex 80% of the fixed-line market.
They cover a broad range: from the teachers' union to Pemex, the state oil monopoly, and Telmex, a private telecoms near-monopoly.
Market observers say the transaction should close before Christmas, re-uniting Telmex and America Movil after Slim spun off the latter in 2001.
Split off from Telmex in February 2001, the company is the leading cellular provider in Mexico and has operations throughout Latin America.
Bruno Senna, the nephew of former triple Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna, is sponsored by Embratel, part of Slim's Telmex group.
Thus Telmex, the state telecoms monopoly, was privatised in 1990, but not regulated till years later, and made to face competition later still.
Perez has long been backed by Telmex owner Carlos Slim, the world's richest man and a backer that McLaren would dearly love on board.
These are entities such as Cemex, a cement giant, or Telmex, a telecommunications firm, which dominate their industries and have no problem raising money anyway.
Some Telmex customers have been told that their lines will work properly only if they use Telmex handsets, which is illegal under the competition law.
New team sponsors in 2011 included General Electric, Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company PDVSA, Indian automaker Tata Motors and Mexican telecom giant Telmex.
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Lack of tougher regulation is one reason why some potential competitors to Telmex have yet to offer local service, despite having held licences for over a year.
"Everyone was very scared and wanted to take their money away to the U.S. and Europe, " says Carlos Montemayor, chief of Marcatel, a Telmex rival in long-distance service.
His second-largest holding, Carso Global Telecom (other-otc: CGTVY - news - people ), which controls ubiquitous fixed-line operator Telmex, has jumped 15% in that time.
In 2004 America won a case against Mexico at the World Trade Organisation over Mexico's failure to stop Telmex from overcharging American companies to dial into the country.
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