Claro in Chile

The figures on this page come from SUBTEL, Chile’s telecoms regulator, from Claro’s and América Móvil’s own pages and from the press, each with its date.

Claro, VTR and América Móvil

Claro Chile and VTR, which Liberty Latin America owned, completed their combination on 6 October 2022, after approval from Chile’s competition authority, the FNE. The new company, ClaroVTR, began as a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Latin America and América Móvil. On 28 July 2025 América Móvil used its option to buy Liberty’s remaining shares in Claro Chile SpA and took 100% of the company, a step that needed no regulatory approval. It said at the same time that it would reorganise its Chilean affiliates.

The press expected the VTR name to fade over time. Claro’s website for personal customers, in a copy captured on 29 October 2026, sells mobile and home plans under the Claro name. SUBTEL’s subscriber series also changed: it listed VTR’s mobile lines on their own until September 2025, when they numbered 230,269, and has no separate VTR figure from October 2025.

Claro’s lines in SUBTEL’s count

SUBTEL counts a mobile line when it has been used in the previous 30 days. In June 2026 it found 5,121,778 Claro lines, 21.6% of the 23.7 million in Chile. The mix has moved towards contracts: Claro’s contract lines rose 20.2% in the year to June 2026, to 4,212,295, while its prepaid lines fell 43.9%, to 909,483.

Claro’s 4G and 5G

Claro opened 4G on 27 June 2013, between the Plaza de Armas and Los Dominicos, in the communes of Santiago, Providencia, Vitacura, Las Condes and Huechuraba. Cooperativa reported that it was the first mobile operator in Chile to offer the service.

5G came later. Claro held 3.5 GHz spectrum that it had not won at auction and could only use for fixed wireless service, until SUBTEL gave it provisional authorisation for mobile 5G in April 2023. In June 2024 it won five 10 MHz blocks in the same band in the second 5G tender, bidding CLP 83,500 million, about US$89.3 million. In a test reported in June 2025, Claro tried 5.5G with Huawei, combining the 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. SUBTEL’s connection series counts Claro 5G connections from June 2025, when there were 1,093,490; by June 2026 there were 1,794,153, 16.6% of Chile’s 10.8 million.

Claro on the roads

The 2024 tender came with duties: Claro committed to bring 5G to 100 additional localities, and to improve the signal along about 1,500 km of highways with heavy freight traffic. Claro’s website links to a page for checking its mobile coverage.

Buying a Claro prepaid SIM

At the end of the first quarter of 2026 SUBTEL counted 4,425,012 prepaid users in Chile, almost 19% of all mobile numbers. Since 20 August 2026 each of those lines needs a verified holder. The register takes a national ID card or a passport number, and a new Claro prepaid chip is activated only after the check, which can be done online or at a branch. A line that has not been validated within 10 calendar days cannot be recharged.

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