The battle between Mexico’s biggest phone companies and top broadcasters escalated in a series of accusations and counter-accusations over interconnection rates and investment, Dow Jones reports.

Bestel and Cablevision, subsidiaries of Televisa, as well as telecoms operators Axtel, Nextel Mexico, and Grupo Iusacell, among others, called on the federal government to apply “pro-competitive” regulations, while offering reciprocal free interconnection with Telcel. Telcel then claimed that smaller operators seek free services because they have not invested in infrastructure of their own.

Telcel said a number of them have not passed on reductions in interconnection rates since 2005 to their customers. In February, Telcel extended to other operators the same interconnection rates agreed among Telcel, Telmex and Movistar.