America Movil (AMX) — Claro Jamaica’s Mexican parent — said that its subscriber base in Jamaica doubled in 2009 to 400,000 running counter to claims made by the local company that it was now the second largest network.

Last December, Claro Jamaica’s IT director Colin Webster declared at a function held at that the Hilton Kingston Hotel in New Kingston that “after one year of operating with the Claro brand, we at Claro are pleased to announce this evening that we are now the second-largest mobile provider in Jamaica”.

LIME, at the time claimed 700,000 subscribers while Digicel claims two million

Claro said it still targets overtaking Digicel in 2010.

AMX reported that the number of wireless subscribers in Puerto Rico, which is coupled with Claro Jamaica in its financial reports, also grew — by approximately 100,000 — but the parent cited “an increase in indirect taxes including two real property taxes that became effective in Puerto Rico in 2009” as the principal reasons for declines in operating income.

Operating revenue for its Caribbean operation (Jamaica and Puerto Rico) climbed from 12.9 billion Mexican pesos in 2008 to $14.8 billion pesos ($105 billion) in 2009 while operating income fell from $1.6 billion pesos to $361,000 pesos last year, or a 78 per cent decline.

But wireless services only accounted for 36.4 per cent of its operating revenue in 2009, which means that from the 1.23 million wireless subscribers across the two countries brought in $5.4 billion pesos ($38.6 billion) in revenue .

AMX said that the average revenue per user (ARPU) decreased by one per cent in 2009 — calculated both in terms of Mexican pesos and in local currencies — but, even while Claro Jamaica realigned its call rates in an aggressive drive to grap market share, it was “the reduction in prices of voice services, principally in Puerto Rico”, where that operations includes over 700,000 fixed line subscribers and 200,000 broadband subscribers, was the primary reason for the decline in average revenue.

AMX said that it “expects the acquisition of Oceanic Digital Jamaica Limited (operating as Claro in Jamaica) to contribute to its the strategy of becoming the leading wireless communication provider in Latin America”.

As of December 31, 2009, AMX had 201 million wireless subscribers in 18 countries,