Occel (merged with Comcel)

active

Occel was awarded a 10-year concession to provide cellular phone services through the A band in the Western region in April 1994. Occel paid US$ 165.7 million for its concession which represented 95% of the price paid by Cocelco for a similar concession. In 1997, the company paid US$ 16.6 million to have its license extended for another 10 years. A loan of US$ 10 million was granted by CAF also in 1994. Occel's concession area concentrates around 37% of Colombian population. The Colombia government divided the country in three regions (North, East, and West) in order to assign the license for cellular phone services. In each region, the Colombian government assigned the B band to a private consortium and the A band to a mixed company. The B band was awarded through a competitive bidding, while the A band was assigned to a group of state owned telecommunications enterprises which created joint ventures with international telecommunications companies. For the concession, the mixed companies had to pay 95% of the winning bid made for B band. Initially, Occel was a consortium owned by Bell Canada International (22.3%), municipality-owned Empresas Publicas de Medellin (37%), Antioquia Celular (24%), Itochu (2.7%), and other private companies. Then the consortium was integrated by Cable and Wireless, but the company sold its participation to Bell Canada International in March 1998. In December 1998, however, Bell Canada International sold its 68.4% stake to its Comcel subsidiary, Comcel BCI, for US$ 355 million. The company had 241,000 customers by the end of 1999. Occel competes with Celumovil in the Western region. The company classified the information about its investments as confidential. In 1999, the company also suffered heavy financial losses of US$ 225 million due to the devaluation of the Colombian peso in October 1999. As a result, the company received a capital increase of US$ 75 million from its owners to lessen the effect of the financial losses. In February of 2002, the company was bought by America Movil. After the acquisition, America Movil in 2004 merged its Colombian operating companies (Comcel, Celcaribe, and Occel) under Comcel; accordingly all investment and other information is under Comcel. it was estimated that Occel invested around $100 million to develop its cellular network based on the investment figures of Cocelco. 2003 investment figures were obtained by distributing America Movil's 2003 investment in facilities by the number of total subscribers for each project - thus 2003 investment is a proxy given other regional investment of America Movil. None