Already familiar in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Claro is an existing brand name of America Movil who bought MiPhone parent company Oceanic Digital Jamaica Limited last year for US$70 million. The launch of the new 3G - or third generation - GSM network and handsets will follow next month, MiPhone marketing manager Noel Esty told the Business Observer.

"We are pretty excited. What we're doing right now is relaunching the brand and you'll start seeing the stores changing and you'll start seeing killer products like the new Apple iPhone next month. The plan right now is to announce to Jamaica that we're changing from MiPhone to Claro," said Esty.

MiPhone had previously fuelled speculation about a rebranding exercise after repainting its New Kingston headquarters in a changed black, white and red corporate livery.

Currently the third cellular company in Jamaica with 250,000 subscribers, it lies behind Cable & Wireless with 660,000 and Digicel with 1.9 million on the local market. MiPhone's new owners are confident of overhauling Digicel within three years, having both launched in 2001.

America Movil has been building out 600 cellular towers islandwide as part of a total investment of US$250 million, which included the purchase price.

However, the company has encountered some obstacles following the illegal erection of some of its cellular towers and its own complaint against Digicel, alleging 'monopolistic' behaviour by the market leader in maintaining high termination rates against its two rival networks.

MiPhone currently operates on CDMA technology whereas Digiciel and Cable & Wireless use 2G GSM. Cable & Wireless plans to launch the first phase of its 3G network before Christmas.

America Movil has approximately 160 subscribers spread across operations in 17 different countries including the United States and within Latin America and the Caribbean. It reported revenues of US$28.7 billion last year.

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