Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, S.A.

Trade name	Claro
Native name	Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, S.A.
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Telecommunications
Predecessor	CODETEL (1930–2004; 2007–2011) Verizon (2004–2007)
Founded	November 11, 1930; 95 years ago (1930-11-11)[1]
Headquarters	18°28′57″N 69°56′02″W / 18.4825507°N 69.9338301°W / 18.4825507; -69.9338301 Edificio Corporativo Claro Dominicana, Avenida John F. Kennedy 54, Serrallés, Piantini, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Area served	Dominican Republic
Key people	Carlos José Cueto Stefani (President)
Products	Broadband Internet services, local wireline and wireless telecommunication services, hosting, and digital cable
Parent	Anglo Canadian Telephone Company (1930–1931) General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1931–2004) Verizon Communications (2004–2007) América Móvil (since 2007)
Website	claro.com.do (in Spanish)

Claro Dominicana (Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, S.A.), doing business as Claro (formerly CODETEL), is the largest telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic. The company provides local, long-distance, and wireless voice services, as well as Internet and IPTV services, to approximately four million customers.

History

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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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).^[3] 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.^[4]

Verizon Dominicana

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. Verizon Dominicana was an independent country bought by Codetel and now is Claro.

Services

Management

The current president of Claro Dominican Republic is Carlos José Cueto Stefani.

See also

• Telecommunications in the Dominican Republic

Notes

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)
• América Móvil