Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-jl) -- Telmex Peru, the Peruvian branch of the Mexican telecommunications giant, Telmex, has announced that it will purchase Peru's second largest cable television provider, Cable Express.

With this acquisition, the Mexico-based company will enter the Peruvian cable television market, currently dominated by the Spanish telecommunications company, Telefonica.

Telmex Peru's General Manager, Mauricio Escobedo, comfirmed that Telmex is currently negotiating with Boga Communications, the provider of Cable Express services in Lima and the northern Peruvian city of Chiclayo.

Boga Communications currently represents only 4% of the total cable television market, with Telefonica leading the industry with a whopping 87% market share.

"We are currently ironing out the details and the deal should be done shortly," affirmed Escobedo.

Telmex Peru's objective is to provide Peru with triple-play bundle service, a service which includes cable television, long distance telephone service, and high speed internet service.

"We will need to revamp the current installations and networks to be able to offer these services as a bundle. We are positive that we will be able to offer the Peruvian public this package of services at the end of the first semester of 2007," declared Escobedo.

Telmex, which also operates in the Peruvian cellular telephone market under the brand Claro, is prepared to invest an estimated US$100 million to make this service available to those living in Peru's largest markets.

According to Peruvian government statistics, there are only 564,275 cable television subscribers in the Andean nation.