MEXICO CITY, June 17 (Reuters) - Mexico's

telecommunications regulator fined America Movil's subsidiary

Telcel 1.78 billion pesos ($93.61 million) on Tuesday for

striking exclusivity deals with convenience store chain Oxxo to

sell its SIM cards.

America Movil, the telecommunications giant controlled by

the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, denied the

regulator's findings and pledged to challenge the investigation

and fine.

The fine follows an investigation launched in 2021 by the

Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) at the request of a

competitor over the alleged monopolistic practices by Telcel.

The IFT also levied 19.5-million-peso fines on Oxxo,

Mexico's ubiquitous Femsa-owned convenience chain,

and IMMEX, another Femsa subsidiary, for their role in the deal.

The "monopolistic practice consisted of Telcel granting

incentives to Oxxo and IMMEX, on the condition that they would

not sell SIM cards from competitors," the IFT said.

Telcel will fight the decision "through all available legal

means," America Movil said in a statement, calling the

investigation from the IFT "biased" and "lacking evidence."

In its own statement, Femsa said it "does not agree with the

grounds of the resolution," which it said does not reflect its

business model of "broad, diverse and open" offerings.

Femsa said it would contest the resolution through the

corresponding legal channels.

($1 = 19.0150 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle and Cassandra Garrison; Editing

by Bill Berkrot, Stephen Coates and Muralikumar Anantharaman)