AMERICA Móvil, the parent company of telecommunications provider Claro, has reported 8.2 million additional mobile users in the last quarter of 2010, bringing its total to 225 million worldwide.

The growth mainly occurred in Brazil and Mexico, the firm reported. The additional 8.2 million mobile service subscribers is a 23.4 per cent increase over 2009; of the 8.2 million users, 1.9 million were postpaid customers — which is double the number of the previous year.

However, the Carlos Slim-owned phone service provider says its net profit was affected by higher depreciation costs, especially in Colombia and Brazil. The upshot is that the firm saw its bottom line decline by 4.7 per cent over the period under review to 24.23 billion pesos (US$1.95 bilion).

But despite the drop in net income, America Movil has surprised several researchers who has said that that the firm’s performance was above expectations in terms of revenues and net incomes.

America Móvil in a press release said that the consolidated results were encouraging; revealing that the South American economies are growing quickly and the United States and Mexican economies are showing increasing signs of recovery, explaining that that is why the subscribership to mobile and data plans have increased and this is where the most growth was documented.

America Móvil acquired the Costa Rican market in a public auction held in January and was granted a licence to operate on the 70 MHz of spectrum in the 1.8 MHz and 2.1 MHz bands for the next 15 years. The firm is projecting that an additional 65 million mobile users will be on their network by 2014, making them one the largest networks worldwide, with approximately 300 million users.

Claro Jamaica

In a press release last week, Claro Jamaica said that since its launch in the country two years ago, it has been able to “command” significant share of the Jamaican mobile landscape. In the Caribbean region, the company said, there was a 10.8 per cent increase overall in 2010, when compared to 2009. Specifically for Jamaica, Claro said it has significantly invested in the island and there has been a very high demand for their products, adding that it has seen quarterly sales exceeding expectations and have had the company “…returning to the Office of Utilities Regulation for additional mobile numbers to meet this demand”.

Claro Jamaica noted that it launched the iPhone 4 and BlackBerry Torch in late 2010 and made them both available on one of the most affordable postpaid rates. The company added that the response to its Christmas Clarorific Promotion was overwhelming.

“Claro Jamaica has worked assiduously to bring innovation to the mobile and data service market in Jamaica,” said the company in the press release.

CEO at Claro, Alejandro Gutierrez said that Claro remains committed to a partnership with Jamaica, maintaining that “Claro has consistently made efforts to ensure that Jamaica maintains the best 3G coverage, data services as well as the most affordable talk time rates”.