America Movil snags iPhone for Latin America

Jonny Evans
|
May 07, 2008
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 America Movil will sell iPhone across Latin America starting this year.

The largest cell phone operator made the announcement today, the latest in what appears a fashionable string of mobile telcos to let investors know they’ve bagged distribution rights for the Apple mobile phone. It had been thought local operator Telcel would take this prize, though with recent indications that Apple isn't seeking wholly exclusive deals, there's still an outside chance Telcel will get to carry the device.

With a subscriber base of 153 million in 2007, America Movil operates in 15 markets in the region, including Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The public company is pretty much commanded by the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, who ousted Bill Gates from the top of the pile last year.

Interestingly, the company recently began using Yahoo’s oneSearch as a default for mobile users, and includes support for YouTube videos for its 3G mobile phone users.

This is just the latest public declaration of intent to commit iPhone, which saw Vodafone confirm plans to offer the device in ten markets earlier this week, in Italy at least sharing the honour with Telecom Italia. Orange is now in talks to offer the device in Spain and Poland, while Rogers Telecom will serve the device up in the Canadian market.

It’s clear June’s going to be a big month for Apple-watchers.

 

Edit to note: Thanks to the eagle-eyed readers who've been able to let us know Telcel is a part of America Movil.  

 

Comments (8)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2008 - 10:40am

Accoring to theAmerica Movil website, Telcel is listed as an affiliate/ subsidary of America Movil.

john p (not verified) | May 07, 2008 - 11:26am

this would be the carriers that will carrie the iphone in

Brazil - claro
uruguay - claro
argentina- claro
peru- claro
ecuador - porta
paraguay - claro
chile - claro
columbia - concel gsm

central america

nicaragua - claro
honduras -claro
el salvador - claro
guatemala - claro
mexico - telcel
jamaica - claro
domica republica - claro
puerto rico - claro
those should be the 15 carriers that AMERICA MOVEL are affiliated with.

john p (not verified) | May 07, 2008 - 12:08pm

puerto rico has iphone already so its not going to be claro

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2008 - 11:32am

Claro in Puerto Rico operates as a CDMA network, Iphone is serviced by AT&T on the island

josh marrero (not verified) | May 11, 2008 - 10:42pm

I don't know if you live in Puerto Rico or if u are informed of the latest events. But Claro Puerto Rico, to line up to the other America Movil subsidiaries in America has launched a 3G GSM network in all of the island.

Also, there is no iPhone sold in Puerto Rico. People that have it have activated it out of legal terms with other carriers, after buying the device in USA.

AT&T has no rights of the iPhone outside of the 50 US states, where Puerto Rican AT&T Mobility operations are not included. Hence this fact, expect the 3G iPhone from www.claropr.com this summer.

Corduroy Jonz (not verified) | May 07, 2008 - 3:45pm

'tis the truth. america movil is telcel's "official" name. telcel is just a dba.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2008 - 4:12pm

Carlos Slim is the owner of America Movil, it's commercial name in Mexico is Telcel.

iphone know it all (not verified) | May 24, 2008 - 6:40pm

The iPhone can be activated "legally" with AT&T PR phone numbers using itunes version 7.5 or later, there is no need to unlock them. The main reason why the iphone has not been launched in PR is that it does not have support for spanish, which will be supported withe the next ROM update. AT&T holds the iPhone exclusive rights on the island