Mexican telecommunications group America Movil announced it will change the names of its Colombian companies, mobile operator Comcel and Telmex which provide Internet, land-line, and television connections, to Claro.
America Movil, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, made the announcement in a press release which stated that “The two companies will continue to operate independently, as they have done over the years. The [name change] process will not affect in any way the operations of the two companies or their products and services.”
The statement went on to say that “The re-branding does not signify a merger, on the contratry, Telmex and Comcel will both work under than same image with the aim of offering its users a better experience with greater benefits and converged services.”
As of March 2012, Comcel had just over 29.02 million wireless or cellular subscribers, of which 4.9 million were on contract, while the remaining 24.1 million were on pay-as-you-go plans.
Telmex had 3,734,000 fixed-line subscribers in Colombia and in the first three months of 2012 made gross income of $1.3 billion in the Andean nation.
America Movil operates in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador , Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and the United States.
Its subsidiaries already operate under the name Claro in all the aforementioned countries except Mexico, Ecuador, the United States, and Colombia.