Adding to its woes as it comes under scrutiny for market dominance in Mexico, America Movil’s profit for the first quarter of the year almost halved.

The Carlos Slim-owned operator group reported net income of MXN13.88 billion, down 48.3 per cent on the equivalent quarter in 2013. Its total revenue was up 1.3 per cent at MXN195.44 billion.

Total service revenue was MXN175.88 billion, up 0.8 per cent, with wireless accounting for 62.6 per cent of the total.

The sharp fall in profit was attributed in part to a MXN91 million foreign exchange gain during the period compared with MXN17.4 billion in the same period in 2013.

The company said the “volatility of exchange rates ended up understating the strength of the underlying revenue dynamism”, with service revenues posting their second best performance for the past five quarters on a constant exchange rate basis. Wireless voice and fixed data services saw accelerated growth during the quarter.

The company’s wireless subscriber base stood at 272.2 million by the end of the quarter, 2.3 million and 3.5 per cent up on Q1 2013.

This increase included 1.4 million new users from the acquisition of US MVNO Page Plus but was impacted by net disconnections of 585,000 largely prepaid subscribers. The postpaid user base increased 9.0 per cent as 769,000 subscribers were added, including 289,000 in Brazil. The prepaid base rose by 2.6 per cent.

Mexico accounted for 27 per cent of the company’s total wireless subscriber base with 73.3 million, followed by Brazil on 25 per cent (68.7 million) and Colombia with 11 per cent (29.2 million).

Mexico also accounted for the largest proportion of revenue, with wireless revenue from the market reaching MXN43.92 billion, up 3.7 per cent year-on-year. Mobile data revenue rose 13.3 per cent, although mobile voice revenue declined 2.3 per cent.

America Movil was ruled to be dominant by the newly created Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) in March due to its 70 per cent share of the Mexican mobile market, and 80 per cent share of the fixed-line market.

Earlier this month the IFT announced tougher rules for the fixed and mobile operations of America Movil as part of an effort to improve competitiveness in the market. These cover roaming, unlocked phones and billing.

An injunction request filed by America Movil against the new rules is reportedly being examined by a court.

This week, America Movil, which already owns 27 per cent of Telekom Austria, struck an agreement with state-owned OIAG (which holds 28 per cent) to take control of the Austrian incumbent. Under Austrian law they now must make a bid for the remainder of Telekom Austria’s shares.

America Movil is committed to supporting a €1 billion capital increase to strengthen the position of Telekom Austria and will launch a public tender offer for the shares it or OIAG don’t already own, giving it “direct operational responsibilities” for the Austrian player.

America Movil previously tried to take control of Dutch telecoms group KPN, in which it holds a minority stake, but came unstuck by a shareholder advisory group.