Millicom International Cellular: Rebranding of Cable Business in Costa Rica to Tigo

As reported last week (Move Over Amnet As Name Changes To Tigo), it is now official that the brand Amnet has disappeared from the Costa Rica market, as the parent company, rebranded to Tigo.

The change joins Millicom's three other cable businesses in Central America already operating under the Tigo brand in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Tigo is Millicom's brand across all its markets in Latin America and Africa. Tigo has built a strong reputation for the provision of affordable, widely accessible and readily available communication, information, entertainment, mobile financial services and other value added services, all of which are designed to meet the specific needs of customers.

Angelo Iannuzzelli, the company's General Manager in Costa Rica commented: "We are celebrating this change and we will offer our customers innovation in cable television, internet and phone services. Tigo will make a difference in the market."

Tigo Costa Rica is, in conjunction with the rebranding, also launching new, attractively bundled products and services. Notably, the offering to corporate customers is enriched with new features such as a state of the art video conferencing solution. Tigo Costa Rica's residential customers will be offered access to Video O n Demand services, HD quality and the option to watch internet content on their TV screens.

Mikael Grahne, Millicom's President and CEO, commented: "The Tigo brand is derived from the Spanish word 'contigo', which means 'with you'. Across our operations we pride ourselves on being close to our customers, understanding what drives their consumption choices and devising attractive products and services to meet their needs. We are delighted that our range of cable and broadband services in Costa Rica is now part of the growing Tigo family."

About Millicom
Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications group with mobile telephony operations in 13 countries in Latin America and Africa. It also operates various combinations of fixed telephony, cable and broadband businesses in five countries in Central America. The Group's mobile operations have a combined population under license of approximately 270 million people.

Millicom's presence in Costa Rica dates back to more than two decades ago.

Millicom's first entry into the Costa Rican market was during the first Arias administration (1986-1990), when the company was awarded the concession to exploit a radio frequency that allowed it offer cellular telephone services outside of ICE's monopoly.

Millicom left Costa Rica in 1995, two years after the Constitutional Court (Sala IV) declared illegal the way in which the company was awarded control over part of the country's electromagnetic spectrum and ruled that only the state could provide mobile phone services.

ICE ended up taking over Millicom's infrastructure, and Millicom sued the Costa Rican government for over $400 million in a U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., for monopolistic practices and unlawful expropriation. The court rejected the trial in February 1998.

Millicom returned in 2008 with the purchase of Amnet Telecommunications Holding Limited, a leading Central American provider of broadband Internet and cable television, for $510 million.

Amnet, until recently, was Costa Rica's leading cable provider and a major provider of high-speed Internet through a partnership with state-owned Internet provider Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA).