With its third place in the Chilean mobile market, Claro will focus this year on the first level of network synergies and marketing, while it advances in the stock merger between Telmex and América Móvil. Speaking to Convergencialatina, Gerardo Muñoz, CEO of Claro Chile, said that they are executing the integration of fixed and mobile operations with Telmex. "This is our main task, which began in 2010," he said.

The concept of "convergence" as described by Muñoz in the horizon of the possible stock merger consists of “a single point of contact, through which one will be able to present integrated telecommunications services to users." That is to say, -on one side- synergies will focus on marketing, on communication before, during and after the sale.

After, network synergy we will look to take advantage, in the fixed world, of the strong transportation network of Telmex, in its backbone, the deployment of fiber optics, urban rings, and the implementation of MPLS. "In the mobile world, we will impel accesses that allow high bandwidth."

On the basis of these synergies one may optimize constant investments  demanded by the mobile broadband business of Claro, an issue that Muñoz considered as one of the key challenges for the industry today.

Portability. Ricardo Gebauer, director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Claro, pointed out portability as the main challenge in the mobile industry at a regulatory level. Lastly, after all, it is emerging as one of the alternatives for Claro in its effort to leave its third (and last) place among 3G cellular operators in Chile.

According to the last information from the Department of Telecommunications (SUBTEL), at the end of March the subsidiary of América Móvil added 20.7% of the market, behind Movistar, with a 41.71% share, and Entel, with 37.49%. Nextel, which has only 0.08% of users would seek to dispute Claro's market share once 3G becomes operational in early 2011.

In addition to the entrance of VTR in the cellular segment, portability is a tempting way to capture the flight of customers of the leaders Movistar and Entel. "We are concerned that operational standards for portability have not yet been established less than six months for the scheduled launch date.  In Claro we are already working because we are very interested in this process," said Gebauer.