Claro Puerto Rico is the largest telecommunications service provider in Puerto Rico. It is headquartered in

Guaynabo Guaynabo (, ) is a city and municipality on the northeastern coastal plain of Puerto Rico. Located west of the capital San Juan, east of Bayamón, south of Cataño and San Juan Bay, and north of Aguas Buenas, Guaynabo is spread over 9 barrio ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, and has operated for almost a century offering voice, data, long distance,

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

, directory publishing and wireless services for the island residents and businesses. It was founded by the Behn brothers,

Sosthenes Sosthenes (Greek: Σωσθένης, ''Sōsthénēs'', "safe in strength") was the chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, who, according to the Acts of the Apostles, was seized and beaten by the mob in the presence of Gallio, the Roman governo ...

and Hernan in 1914. Originally, Puerto Rico Telephone Company eventually spawned

ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

, which was founded by Sosthenes Behn. The company was a

public corporation of the government of Puerto Rico In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

for many years until the majority stakes were acquired by

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

in the mid-1990s. It was a subsidiary of

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

until it was fully acquired by

América Móvil América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in the world in terms of equity subscribers, as well as one of the largest corpor ...

in 2007.

Present Day

On April 3, 2006,

announced it had agreed to sell its stakes in Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico, Inc. (TELPRI) and their sole ownership of the main Dominican telephone company Verizon Dominicana, now

Claro República Dominicana Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, doing business as, 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 serv ...

, to

of Mexico.Verizon Communications Completes the Sale of Its Interest in Puerto Rico Telephone
Verizon International-Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
" Verizon International-Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. On December 31, 2006, Verizon and América Móvil completed Verizon Dominicana ownership transfer into Mexican hands. After another three months and various litigations upon the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

, which had advised from the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Board, on March 30, 2007, TELPRI assets were completely acquired by América Móvil. The purchase was closed after an agreement to purchase from Popular, Inc., the government of

and the telephone company employee stock ownership program, the remaining stocks of TELPRI at the same price as

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

. Currently,

is the 100% owner of the companyAmérica Móvil acquires PRTC, Inc.
" Cellular-news.com April 2, 2007. and has rebranded the wireless arm of the company -formerly

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

- under their international Claro brand.América Móvil completes takeover of PRT, rebrands mobile arm as Claro
" Teleography's CommsUpdate April 2, 2007. As of February 2011, America Móvil has rebranded its wireline (fixed line), broadband DSL, television and dial-up services as Claro. The only services that, for now, remain branded as Claro - Puerto Rico Telephone are business, government or corporate. Effective March 2013, all Claro Puerto Rico have been rebranded. Services to business, government and enterprises are now offered under the Claro Empresas brand.

Relationship with Verizon Wireless

Until 2014, Claro continued to offer a CDMA network for Verizon Wireless customers as well as legacy Claro customers. The CDMA network appeared as "Extended Network" coverage on Verizon - meaning the majority of Verizon customers were able use it at no extra charge. Prepaid providers like Page Plus Cellular however had to pay roaming in Puerto Rico. Data access for Verizon customers was at full speed. However, Claro deployed EV-DO before launching its GSM/UMTS network. As a result, Claro had the slowest CDMA coverage on Verizon Wireless at sub-3G 1xRTT speeds, peaking at 144-230 kbit/speed. Roaming customers would not access the EV-DO local network. Data, like voice, was Extended Network coverage which had per-KB roaming charges on some older plans. As of 2014, the former Verizon CDMA network has been shut down with Claro now using GSM, UMTS, and LTE exclusively. Verizon has since signed a 2G and 3G CDMA roaming agreement with Open Mobile, where Verizon customers can use its network without charge. Later on, Verizon has also signed another agreement with Claro to also allow customers to use their LTE Network.

References

External links

Claro Puerto Rico

América Móvil
{{United States telephone companies Internet service providers of Puerto Rico Telecommunications companies of Puerto Rico ITT Inc. América Móvil Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 1995 establishments in Puerto Rico Companies established in 1995

Present Day

Relationship with Verizon Wireless

See also

References

External links