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).