Good morning. My name is Caleb, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the América Móvil third quarter 2026 conference call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Daniela Lecuona, Head of Investor Relations.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today to discuss our third quarter financial and operating results. We have on the line Mr. Daniel Hajj, CEO, Mr. Carlos García Moreno, CFO, and Mr. Oscar Von Hauske Solís, COO.
Thanks, Daniela. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for being here in the third quarter of 2026 conference call. Carlos is going to make a summary of the results.
Okay.
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Well, we had the third quarter with oil prices rising to a new peak in mid-September of over $100 per barrel of WTI crude. Long-term inflation expectations were clearly affected, pushing long-term rates up with the yield on 10-year Treasury notes, accelerating its gains from the week before. These factors, together with a particularly strong non-farm payrolls report for that month that exceeded expectations, were the main drivers of the Fed's decision on September 16 to increase its policy rate by 25 basis points. The higher rates in the U.S. supported a recovery of the dollar versus some currencies in our region of operations. The Mexican peso gave up in September all the gains it had posted versus the dollar in the first two months of the quarter to end the period down approximately 2.1%.
The Colombian peso managed to gain 3% in spite of this, while the Brazilian real and the euro remained practically unchanged over the quarter. In the third quarter, we added 3.1 million postpaid subscribers, roughly the average of the prior four quarters, as Brazil led the way with 743,000 additions. Colombia followed with 348,000, Peru with 229,000, Mexico with 144,000, and Argentina with 126,000 subscribers. In the prepaid segment, we recorded 5 million net disconnections, primarily reflecting subscriber-based cleanups in Mexico and Colombia. Notwithstanding the cleanups, we managed to post net prepaid subscriber gains in Eastern Europe, Argentina, Central America, and Ecuador that totaled 745,000 subscribers. In the fixed line segment, we connected 390,000 new broadband accesses. Brazil was the main contributor with 94,000 additions, followed by Colombia with 67,000 and Argentina with 53,000.
Pay TV net additions totaled 50,000 units, with Eastern Europe and Central America accounting for most of the growth. Mobile postpaid and fixed broadband accesses remain the main drivers of customer growth, increasing 8.9% and 5.6% respectively compared to the year earlier quarters. América Móvil third quarter revenue totaled MXN 251 billion, 7.6% year-on-year increase, with the EBITDA reaching 40.8% margin, a 0.5% percentage increase from a year before. At constant exchange rates, service revenue was up 5.3% and EBITDA 6.7%. EBITDA continued to grow faster than service revenue. Service revenue growth resulted from mobile service revenue increasing 6.3%, very much in line with the pace of service prior three quarters, and fixed line revenue growth accelerating to 3.7% from 2.7% in the prior quarter. On the mobile platform, postpaid service revenue increased 7.5% year-on-year at constant exchange rates, also very similar to that of the prior three quarters.
While prepaid revenue rose 4.3%, slightly less rapidly than the pace of the preceding quarter, but very much in line with the prior quarters. Postpaid revenue growth accelerated in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia to 8%, 8.5%, and 12% respectively. Growth rates in Chile and Peru also moved up to 11.5% and 7.5% respectively. Operating profit for prepaid service revenue growth decelerated in Mexico, partly reflecting the subscriber registration process mandated by the regulator, as well as in Brazil and Austria, but accelerated in Eastern Europe, Central America, Caribbean, and Ecuador. Operating profit totaled MXN 57 billion, up 13.9% from the year earlier quarter. Outpacing EBITDA growth as depreciation and amortization charges rose only 3%. Although net interest expense was down 11.2% year-on-year, our comprehensive financing cost increased as a result of foreign exchange losses of MXN 3.6 billion in the period compared to foreign exchange gains the prior year.
We reported a net profit of MXN 24 billion in the quarter, 7% higher than in the year earlier quarter, bringing our year-to-date net income to MXN 72 billion. In the nine months to September, our capital expenditures totaled MXN 76 billion. They were fully funded by our cash flow, which also enabled us to reduce net debt in cash flow terms by MXN 34 billion and distribute MXN 27 billion to our shareholders by way of share buybacks and dividends. Our labor obligations came down by MXN 13 billion in the quarter. Our free cash flow was 41% higher than that of 2025, which in turn had been 47% greater than that of the year before. A great share of the cash flow went to the reduction of our net debt, such that at the end of the quarter, our net debt stood at MXN 400 billion, excluding leases.
It was equivalent to 1.21 x EBITDA after leases, down from 1.50 x at the end of 2025. With this, I will pass the floor back to Daniel so that we can begin the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos. Now we can start with the Q&A.
At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Marcelo Santos with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I think the first question I wanted to approach is the M&A pipeline and outlook for buybacks. I think in the Investor Day in New York, you mentioned that that was a priority. I want to know how is that pipeline, if there is room to increasing buybacks. I know we have been increasing so far, but I wanted to get a better feeling about the outlook there. The second question is about Mexican broadband. I think there are a couple of different moving parts. This was a quarter where the net adds were much lower than in previous quarters, so just wanted to understand what is happening there. But at the same time, the revenue growth was much stronger than in previous quarters. So just want to understand these moving parts in Mexican broadband. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Marcelo. Well, you were mentioning the Investor Day where we provided guidance really for the period 2026- 2028, right? Here, where we stated a leverage ratio that we intended to remain within, which was 1.2 x- 1.5x, which is basically where we have been. We said this had also to accommodate the share buyback with our overall distributions, plus the M&A. In this quarter, we are going to have an important amount that we have to accommodate in the M&A front, which is the consolidation of VTR. As you know, the total value, I think we announced that, is BRL 4 billion. Although we still have not completed the tender offer, that should be completed probably just after the turn of the year.
But for the most part, most of the BRL 4 billion will be accounted for in the last quarter. Then also we have the last payment of dividends, which will take place in a couple of weeks, two, three weeks, which is in the neighborhood of MXN 17 billion. Okay, so those are the things that we have in the immediate time, on the near period. But as I said, the guidance that we provide is basically for the next two years as well. And we don't have anything more in the M&A pipeline other than the acquisition in Peru that is waiting for regulatory approval, likely to be received until the second half of the year. And we don't have anything else on the-
And Colombia.
And Colombia-
And Colombia that we think that it could be at the end of this year.
Yeah.
So the-
And on the Mexico broadband, Oscar can talk a little bit more, but I can tell you that we have been growing good the last quarters. And what we do this last quarter, we clean a little bit also our base. People who was not paying or not consuming, and we clean it up. So that's the reason why revenues are increasing and the net adds are not as previous quarters. I don't know, Oscar, if you-
No, it is what you say, but I will add that we increased the speed of all the customer base to be more competitive in the market. And we are focused more on churn as well and upselling the customer base. That's why we had a good increase in the revenues.
And we have how many if they are already in fiber?
94% of the customers are already connected with fiber.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Okay. Clear. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Marcelo.
Your next question comes from the line of Phani Kanumuri with HSBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my questions. The first question is on Argentina. You seem to have a very strong momentum there. But also there is a new operator now after Telecom Argentina has divested its assets. So how are you seeing the competitor scenario there, and what do you expect from this new competition in Argentina? The second question is more accounting related. In your cash flow statements, I observed that your taxes that you paid this year are lower than last year in the first nine months. Could you please specify what is driving it? Are you seeing better realization from these taxes? Thank you.
Well, talking a little bit about Argentina. Well, yes, I think it was a very good quarter for Argentina. We have been investing for a long time. We have a very good 5G network. We have also a lot of broadband. Telefónica and Telecom has merged, I think. They already approve it, but we know that since maybe one year. I think it's a good market. The economy is improving. Things are going good with us, so we are taking advantage from that. So we have good quality, good networks, good distribution, a very good data center for corporate businesses, and that's the reason why we're growing there.
Okay. On the question of the taxes paid, they basically have to do partly with some monies that we receive back from the tax authorities in some countries, like Mexico. Partly something having to do with some limited measures that we've done. Then something having to do basically with the cash flow during the year, how much you pay throughout the year versus how much you pay in the annual amount. Whenever you have paid too much during the year, based on the formula that we have in different countries, and I think this is the most important thing. Then, at the moment that you present your annual returns, then you basically get some credit back. Okay? It basically has to do with that.
No, thanks.
Adding a little bit more on Argentina. They approved the merge, and the remedies, we understand that there's a new company called Metrotel. They're going to move 6 million subscribers. There's not going to be a new network. I think it's going to be like an MVNO, 200,000 broadband subscribers, and they have to do it in 18 months. Well, there's a lot of things going on in Argentina, but we are well prepared to still grow and that we are good in corporate business. We have a very good fiber network, doing good in broadband and in 5G, and spectrum, and the network also quality. We're doing okay. Let's see what's going to happen.
Yeah. Thanks for answering my questions.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Walter Piecyk with LightShed. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thanks. What do you guys expect Televisa to do differently after they buy or if they complete the purchase of the AT&T assets in Mexico?
Well, difficult to say. I think AT&T was a strong competitor, do a lot of things well. It's one of the biggest companies in the U.S., and do a lot of things in Mexico. I think Televisa is also going to be a strong competitor. We think that's going to happen, but at the end of the day, we need to do what we have been doing for a long time. We need to have the best network, good investments, 5G coverage, good quality. We have almost 700 customer care centers, good to take care of the people, our customers. So all of this, the distribution with Telcel is a very strong brand in Mexico. So all of that, we need to follow that and still do what we have been doing.
We don't know exactly what they are going to do, what they are going to change, or what's going to be their strategy. Let's see what's going to happen when they authorize and take the operation of the company. As I told you, AT&T is a strong competitor, and I'm sure that Televisa is going to be also a strong competitor. We still need to do what we have been doing, reinforce our investments, train our people, more salespeople, more distributors, all of that. We have to still focus on that and do what we have been doing for the last years.
Got it. I guess, Carlos, on CapEx, I think in the past, you've cited currency moves having an impact on CapEx. Given the more recent currency move of the dollar recovering, does that give you more room to change CapEx there, or is $7 billion the number? What type of moves, I guess, in currency have an impact on-
What you see-
Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.
No, sorry. What you see this year is we have less CapEx, and it is exactly because what you are saying. We give CapEx in dollars to the subsidiaries, and then the movement of the currencies make that we have less CapEx in pesos. At this time, we do not need to move the CapEx to do more. Some countries are exceeding, a little bit, their budgets. Other ones, they are not exceeding.
All overall, we said $7 billion, 5% +, 5% less, and it is where we are. I think for next year, we are going to have the same. $7 billion, something like that, and we are still making. I do not know if we need to do a little bit more or a little bit less. We have not finished our budget, but no major changes in CapEx. That is what we have been doing and what we-
Okay. Thanks.
-budgeting for next year.
Great. Thanks, Daniel. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Gustavo Farias with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Two on my end. On Brazil competition, we've seen Brazil mobile trends improve in this quarter. Do you believe the competitive environment is stabilizing or promotional pressures are still increasing? My second one on convergent offers. In Brazil, we've seen mobile service revenue accelerating, but fixed service revenue has slowed down. My question is, as convergence becomes more relevant, do you believe investors should focus more on the total service revenue, and not maybe only on, or more focused on mobile service revenue alone? Thank you.
Well, let's talk a little bit. In Brazil, we have a lot of competition. That's no doubt. There's a lot of competitors. There are different competitors in mobile, and we have other competitors in broadband, fiber, Pay TV. It's a lot of competition there. I think in mobile, we are stabilizing a little bit the promotions, but we don't know what is going to happen in the fourth quarter. Now it's coming Christmas and all of that, so we don't know what is going to happen. I don't know what the competitions are going to do, but I think all of them want to have a long-term view. Maybe they have promotions, but there will be some promotions, not reducing price for a year or two years. Let's see what we're going to get in the fourth quarter in promotions. That's what it is.
In the broadband business and the TV business, as you know, there's a lot of companies with fiber. They call them fibreros.
ISPs
ISPs in Brazil. We are growing good. We grow 90 broadband subscribers. That's good for us, and maybe we have more promotions that we used to do, but those promotions should have some time, and then the revenue will come later. We are working very hard because we are just taking Desktop on 1st of October. I think we have a lot of synergies, and we're going to have also good synergies on the commercial side, where we can sell to these customers other products that we have, and to some postpaid or mobile customers that we have, we can sell also where we have fiber, this new, because Desktop has around 4.8 million home passes, and more than half of that, we are not in those areas.
A greenfield for us.
Exactly. We're going to have a lot of opportunities there, and that's what we're focusing. These next six months, we want to integrate the company and take advantage as much as possible to all these Desktop subscribers that we have, and the mobile where we don't have a footprint of fiber to give and offer fiber to them.
Yeah.
Just a comment. We haven't made any changes in the allocation of fixed-line revenues as the different services. Okay. Between broadband and Pay TV and voice, we haven't made any changes in the way that we allocate those revenues.
All right. Very clear. Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Rogério Araujo with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. I have a follow-up on the Brazilian market regarding pricing outlook and also NuCel autonomy. Given the limited front book price increases this year, how do you see the pricing outlook for next year? If you could be more specific on unlimited WhatsApp and prepaid as well. We noticed that Vivo and then TIM, they took it out from their plans, if Claro could follow, and then if there is any expectation of prepaid price increase after several years of flattish prices. Also, if you could tell us a little bit on the strategy for pricing of NuCel, if they have full autonomy or if Claro participates in those decisions, and what to expect for looking into 2027. Thank you so much.
The first one, NuCel, I think we have an agreement with them, and they can do whatever they want to do inside this agreement. Okay? They can decide their prices alone. But if they do, let's say if they reduce the price, I don't think we're going to reduce the cost. So they are going to manage their prices on the area that they can do it. That's what the agreement that we have with NuCel. I think they are doing good. They have good customer base, and they are still growing and doing good as an MVNO. So NuCel is doing okay. On the promotions and in WhatsApp and prepaid promotions, sometimes it's very difficult to increase the price of the card.
What I think it's better if you want to increase the prices, to take out some promotions, and that's what we do on the WhatsApp inside the card. So you take promotions, and it's a little bit increasing the price. So I think that's more or less the way to do things in prepaid, because if you sell at 100 reais a card, it's difficult to do it at 103. So it's not so easy. You can do it, but it's not so easy. So sometimes it's better. I'm not saying that always. Sometimes it's better to reduce the, what's efficiency of the card?
Duration.
Again?
Duration.
The raise, the time of the card. That is the way to increase price, or take out some promotions, or increase the card, or take out some gigas or put. There is a lot of things. In postpaid, well, you can increase price. I do not know. I can lie to you if I can tell you what is going to be our pricing strategy for next year. Of course, there is inflation in Brazil. Costs are increasing, but I do not know if we are going to be allowed, means competition, to increase or not increase prices. Still, we have not discussed that. We are sure that costs are increasing, but we do not know still if we are going to increase or when we are going to increase prices or take out some promotions. That is what we have.
What I can tell you is that the promotions in broadband are high. We are going to still, and we will remain competitive and do what we need to do to be competitive in all the segments in Brazil. That is what we do and what we are going to do this year and next year.
Okay. That is very clear. If I may, one follow-up on the agreement with NuCel that you mentioned. You mentioned the cost, if they reduce price, not necessarily this cost will reduce. If this cost with Claro increases by inflation on an annual basis or any other rate, is there automatic inflation pass-through on those costs?
I do not remember the agreement, but I do not remember the agreement that we have with NuCel. I do not know if it is inflation or if it is for two years. I do not know. I do not remember really the agreement that we have with them.
Okay. No worries. Fair enough. Thanks very much, and congratulations on the results.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Jesús Romo with GlobalData. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning. Congratulations on the results, and thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions about the dynamics of postpaid and prepaid in Mexico, and I wonder if you could add more color. The first one is regarding postpaid. I see that you had a substantial growth in net adds, over 140,000, which is one of the best quarters lately, and 8% increase in postpaid revenue. I wonder if you could add some color on what are the dynamics that are pushing postpaid forward in terms of both subscriptions and revenue, if it's related to IoT, to renewals or clients demanding more data. On prepaid, just to clarify, if part of the net losses that you posted for this quarter are related to the prepaid registration mandate in Mexico. Thank you.
Well, we are talking about postpaid. I think in postpaid, we are doing an excellent job. I can tell you that all the customers that are coming to renew their plan in our customer care centers, half of them are moving to a better plan. That is a good ARPU, and that is the reason why revenues are increasing. We have a source of revenue as new customers, but other source of revenue is that the customers are jumping to a new plan, and that is better for them, better for us. The second is the migration from prepaid to postpaid. We are having more, and since the registration of the number, I think more people are coming from prepaid to postpaid. People is using also more from 4G to 5G.
I think we are the only ones who have a very good 5G and coverage network in Mexico, and that is what you are seeing. That is more or less what we have in postpaid. In prepaid, well, we have disconnections, and there are disconnections that sometimes it is people that only use one time. They take the card and move it. Those are people that were disconnecting, and we still are in the process of registering all the numbers. It is every 15 days.
It is a new number that people have to register until the end of December, and well, it is still a long way to go there. But yes, some people that are consuming are not also wants to register. But well, that is what we have there, and I think at the beginning, we are going to have a little bit of reduction on the prepaid revenues.
But in the mid-run, I think this is going to recover. That is what we have. People is taking more time to register their number. But at the end of the day, I hope, and I do not think that people is going to stay without a phone or without connected because of the registration. It is going to take time. Maybe in the short term, we can have a slow down a little bit on the revenues on prepaid, but in the mid and long term, we are going to recuperate that. That is the way I am seeing things, okay? On the other side, on postpaid, things are going very well, and people is consuming and upselling and doing good.
Just to add to what Daniel is saying. Our ARPU, postpaid ARPU growth in Mexico in the quarter we see is that for the last three years at least, we are seeing a continuous acceleration of postpaid ARPU growth, which is quite significant.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. One follow-up if I may. Regarding postpaid, I understand that these are mostly consumer trends, but do you see that the corporate of the B2B side of the operation is also helping the postpaid revenue in this year?
Yes, we're having more corporate. The corporate is helping a lot on the fixed on all these data center cloud and all these services is growing very good this quarter in the fixed side. Also is doing good in the mobile. We are, yes. As you are asking, yes, it's being good, the corporate customers.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of David Lopes with New Street Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on your results. Just one question on Colombia, please. It is another very strong quarter for Colombia. I was wondering if you can comment on what is working well there, or also comment on the ARPU growth this quarter, and how sustainable this kind of performance is in Colombia. Thank you.
Well, in Colombia, if we go back five years ago, when WOM enters, they do crazy promotions with a lot of data, they charge all the market. But well, that passed, and since that, we have been growing, and we have been doing good. We do, and we focus as we're focusing in Mexico, good network, good customer retention, good upselling. We have a lot of upselling there. Very good upselling. And one of the things that we have is we have the biggest 5G network because they launch They sell the spectrum, and we start to do 5G since the beginning, so we don't have to wait to do the network. We already do invest in the 5G network. So we were the first, the starters in Colombia, in the market, and that is helping us. That's the reason.
We have a very good coverage, we have a good network, and we're growing also very good. So that's what you are seeing in Colombia.
Yeah. Very clear. Thank you. And maybe a quick follow-up. While you mention spectrum, what is the next big auction coming in your main markets, please?
Where? In which country?
Across your markets, which one will be the largest one coming?
I do not remember exactly, but I think we have something in Honduras for end of this year to do 5G. But I do not remember other auction.
Okay. Thank you very much.
We do not need it. We do not need it at this time. We are good.
Very clear. Thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Ernesto González with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking our question. Just talking about the smaller markets, you also delivered strong results in Peru and Ecuador. Anything to call out here or in any of the other markets we didn't discuss? Thank you.
Well, I think we're doing very good in Ecuador. Ecuador is growing good. We have a strategy on 4-Play. We're doing fiber. It cost us a lot of time to understand the fixed business in Ecuador. But I think we have been having maybe two years doing good, increasing our fiber footprint, taking good customers, giving TV. So all of that is working good. And the economy of Ecuador is also improving. That's why we have a very good increase in the prepaid ARPU, also increasing revenues. So things are going better in the economy, and we are doing better in fixed and in mobile. Starting also in corporate customers there. So while Ecuador has been doing good, all Central America, we have outstanding results in Central America. Growing in all the countries, moving a lot more on fixed, moving in 5G. All of Central America is doing good.
Reducing a lot cost and expenses, all these small countries. Not the small countries. Something that we haven't talked about is that we have been improving a lot in cost and efficiencies with some of AI platforms that we think are very convenient for us. So we are understanding more our customer, and doing a lot more things on the call centers, cost side, and all of that. So we are having a big strategy and cost control with all AI platforms, and Oscar can talk a little bit on that.
As you mentioned, we are focused on the AI agents and help us to reduce costs. We are more focused on customer interactions and some part of the network that has been helping us to reduce costs in call centers and maintenance in the network.
Contact the customer faster and solving the problem faster on the [inaudible]. Let's say in the broadband, AI is helping us to go faster, to solve the problem, to attend our customer. All of these things we're improving, and we have a three-year plan to improve every day on all of these areas. So that's-
Peru
Peru. Peru is doing also good. We have more competition, but Peru is doing also good. We have the third operator that is very aggressive in pricing. But we have convergence, we have all of that, and we hope that we can close our company that we buy and consolidate it as soon as possible in Peru also.
What Daniel was saying on Central America, just to give you an idea. Service revenue growth in Central America in the quarter was 11.4%, and EBITDA growth again in the region was 16.1%. Okay? Central America, which is a collection of small countries, as you said, but as a block, it is a very significant block. It is doing extremely well, and it is an area with very stable currencies and very resilient growth.
Yeah. Good.
Really clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Emilio Fuentes with GBM. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. My question is regarding the Televisa acquisition of AT&T. There have been rumors circling around of how Televisa could bundle both its current fixed services with AT&T's mobile services. Related to this, do you expect to receive permission to also offer both fixed and mobile service bundled in Mexico? Thank you.
Well, I think, yeah, they are going to have all the services, and I hope the government will allow us to do all the services also. I think they should do it, no? There is no reason not to do it. As I told you-
Thank you.
As I told you, again, I think strategies are okay, but then you have to have a lot more things on not only a bundle strategy, then you have to have good coverage, good networks, good distribution, customer care centers. You have to have a lot of things, and well, that's something that we have been working, and we're going to still work on that.
Thank you again.
Thank you.
We have reached the end of the Q&A session and will now turn the call back over to Mr. Daniel Hajj for final remarks.
I just thank everyone for being in the call. Thank you very much.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.