MEXICO CITY, April 17 (Reuters) - Mexico's Supreme Court said on Wednesday it upheld an appeal to allow media company MVS Comunicaciones to keep key broadcast spectrum that the government had been trying to reclaim for other uses. The decision is a blow to Mexico's new government which is trying to shake up a telecom sector where regulatory efforts have long been stymied by court battles from entrenched players such as the world's richest man, Carlos Slim. Privately-held MVS sought a court injunction after Mexico's government last year tried to reclaim the 2.5 GHz band, which is ideal for servicing data-hungry devices such as tablets and smartphones, to resell it to other companies. A spokesman for the Supreme Court said it had decided to uphold MVS's appeal. An official at MVS could not immediately be reached for comment and a spokesman for Mexico's Communications and Transport Ministry declined to comment immediately. MVS holds 42 of the 68 existing licenses for the 2.5 GHz band. The government sought to recover the licenses after a bid by MVS to develop high-speed networks using the spectrum failed to materialize. Analysts have estimated that the 190 MHz of the 2.5 GHz band currently held by MVS would be enough to service three companies roughly the size of Slim's America Movil, Mexico's top phone company. America Movil controls around 70 percent of the mobile phone market in Mexico, while Spain's Telefonica, the second biggest player, has about 20 percent.
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