Claro Dominican Republic

Claro Dominican Republic, originally known as CODETEL, is the leading telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic. The company was established in 1932 as a subsidiary of the U.S. firm General Telephone & Electric Corporation, after the Dominican government granted an exclusive franchise for telecommunications services to the Anglo Canadian Telephone Company in 1930. CODETEL held a near monopoly until the mid-1990s when competition began to emerge. In 2000, the company became a subsidiary of Verizon, a new entity formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. In 2006, Verizon sold its stakes in Verizon Dominicana to América Móvil, a group owned by Carlos Slim Helú. Following the acquisition, the company underwent a rebranding, with the CODETEL brand being used for landline services and Claro for mobile services. The company's brands were unified under the Claro brand in 2011 as part of a global unification across Latin America, where América Móvil's services are under the Claro brand.