La red donde todo es posible.
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Claro | |
Industry | Communications Services |
Founded | 1930 |
Headquarters |
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
Key people
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Oscar Peña Chacón, President |
Products | Broadband Internet services, Local wireline and wireless telecommunication services |
Parent | América Móvil |
Website | http://www.claro.com.do |
Claro (formerly CODETEL) is the largest telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic and provides local, long-distance, and wireless voice services, as well as Internet and IPTV services, to approximately four million customers.
Until 1930, telephone service had been administered by the government, but when the Hurricane San Zenon destroyed all the facilities, the Dominican government granted exclusive franchise for telecommunications services to the Anglo Canadian Telephone Company on November 11, 1930.
CODETEL began in the Dominican Republic in 1932 as a subsidiary of the U.S. firm General Telephone & Electric Corporation, and held a de facto monopoly until the mid-1990s, when Tricom began operations. After the Dominican government passed Law 153 in 1998 providing for effective liberalization and improved pro-competition regulation, new entrants had eroded CODETEL's predominant position with the incumbent capturing only 50% of the international traffic to the United States (accounting for 70% of the total international traffic). In 2000 Verizon was formed after a merger by Bell Atlantic and GTE, with CODETEL continuing operations as a subsidiary of the new company. In December 2003, CODETEL announced the commercial launch of its Flash Movil 3G network, a CDMA2000 1X voice and high-speed data network using equipment, software and services from Lucent Technologies.
Previously known as CODETEL (Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos), the name change was announced February 2, 2004, at the National Theater of Santo Domingo in a ceremony to welcome the Verizon brand to the country.
On April 3, 2006, Verizon agreed to sell its stakes in Verizon Dominicana along with Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico Inc. (TELPRI) in Puerto Rico to Carlos Slim Helú's group América Móvil for $3.7 billion. On January 31, 2007, the company's new owner América Móvil announced that the CODETEL brand would be used for its landline services and Claro for mobile services.