America Movil
América Móvil, S.A. de C.V.
América Móvil, S.A. de C.V., is not only Mexico’s largest privately-owned company, but it is also the largest provider of wireless communications in Latin America and the largest fixed-line operator in Central America. América Móvil or Telcel, as it is known in Mexico, receives about half of its annual revenue from activities performed in Mexico. The company also does business in the United States and other Latin American countries. Next to Wal-Mart de Mexico, América Móvil and Telcel are the largest privately-owned companies in terms of annual revenue.
América Móvil can track its history back to the establishment in 1956 of Publicidad Turistica, a government-owned affiliate of Telmex at the time that published telephone directories. In 1981 the Mexican government granted this firm a concession for the installation and operation of a wireless telephone system in Mexico. In 1984 Publicidad Turistica changed its name to Radiomovil Dipsa and in 1989 this company began operation under the Telcel trademark. Between 1988 and 1990, Telcel expanded its cellular network to cover the Mexico City metropolitan area and other major cities around Mexico. When Telcel was privatized in 1990, it began offering cellular services to all regions in Mexico. In 1995 the company held 57 percent of the market mainly because of people’s frustrations with Telcel’s poor land-line services. In 2000 Telcel announced it was going to create a spin off company, América Móvil, as an independent company for cellular and broadband Internet services. From this companies inception it has been a dominant force in communications in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, the U.S., and Uruguay. As of December 2007, the cellular company had 137 million subscribers in 16 countries and sales over 28 billion dollars.
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