Mexico’s national congress has just passed a bill that would bring major reform to the telecoms industry across the board in the North American nation. The bill was initially made as a pushback to the growing scrutiny aimed at potential monopolies, which could develop with a lack of open competition in the industry. The Senate finally approved the bill, which had been floating as a major point of discussion between both houses of the Mexican congress for more than a month or so.

Now that the national congress has given the bill the nod, it still needs to be approved by a majority of the state congresses in order to go into effect. The reform however, may make some serious waves in the Mexican telecom world, as it’s poised to challenge the empire of the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim. Slim’s telecom giant America Movil controls roughly 70% of the nation’s phone market. Likewise, it threatens to challenge Latin America’s largest TV network, Televisa, which also controls about two thirds share of the nation’s TV market.

By passing the bill into law, Mexico is expecting to open the door for more foreign investment into the country through this booming industry. It will also set precedent by allowing foreign companies to become majority shareholders in the market for the first time in history. They also expect it to help build permanent systems that will prevent future monopolies, or one-company dominance in the market, such as America Movil or Televisa currently has. Needless to say, this doesn’t sit well with either of the Mexican telecom giants.

The sweeping reforms are part of a greater effort by Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto to bring about big structural changes to the Mexican business model, starting with reforming the old systems of one-company market dominance. The telecommunications reform is just one part in Nieto’s “Pact for Mexico”, a broad alliance designed to bring reform to all sectors of the economy and political sphere.