Colombia One · সাধারণ

Movistar Becomes Tigo in Colombia After Millicom Takeover

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Movistar has become Tigo in Colombia after Millicom completed its takeover of Movistar’s parent company, Colombia Telecomunicaciones, marking a major change in the country’s telecommunications market. The company announced that the Movistar brand will disappear, replaced by the message “Movistar ahora es Tigo” (Movistar is now Tigo).

Millicom assembled the deal over more than a year, buying EPM’s stake in January, part of Telefónica’s holdings in February, and the national government’s share of Colombia Telecomunicaciones in late April. Colombia’s competition authority approved the integration in November 2025, subject to conditions, because the merger affects 19 markets, including mobile services, home internet and television.

Tigo now plans to invest about US$2.6 billion over four years, in addition to the US$1.4 billion Millicom has already spent acquiring shares in the two businesses. Claro, Colombia’s market leader, responded with a public manifesto declaring that “leadership is not declared, it is demonstrated.” For customers, the immediate question is whether the change will affect their phone service, plans or bills.

What the Tigo rebranding means for Movistar customers

Tigo’s central message to Movistar customers is that almost nothing will change at first. Colombian CEO Carlos Blanco summed it up by saying the company will honor every contract, charge the same prices in the same way, and let customers keep their SIM cards and phone numbers.

Customers do not need to buy a new plan or visit a store, so the change is mainly a rebranding. Visible differences will appear gradually: bills will begin to display the Tigo logo this month, and from November, the name of the mobile network on phone screens will automatically change from Movistar to Tigo, along with signage at service points.

Prices will not rise automatically, although both companies acknowledge that future changes remain possible. Tigo says it will announce any changes in advance and comply with consumer information rules.

This promise matters because the competition authority attached conditions to the deal, including fair rates for smaller operators that rent network access, transparent bundled offers and four years of independent audits (external reviews that check compliance). Even so, customers should watch their bills closely, since a smooth rebranding says nothing about future prices.

How the Tigo-Movistar merger changes Colombia’s telecom market

The merger leaves Colombia’s mobile market with two dominant players. Claro serves 40.9 million lines, while the combined Tigo and Movistar business reaches about 35 million users. Several outlets describe the result as a duopoly (a market controlled mainly by two companies).

Supporters of the merger told the competition authority that a larger company with more resources could compete directly with Claro, potentially benefiting customers through better networks and offers. Claro, for its part, argues that the competition goes beyond coverage. Its manifesto says Colombia now needs the capacity to move, store, process and protect information so that technology translates into productivity and opportunity.

The company promises to keep investing and improving its services but provides no figures in this first statement, making the message more of a positioning move than a concrete plan. Tigo’s US$2.6 billion investment plan sets a benchmark for Claro as it seeks to maintain its lead, while the merger conditions, which also prohibit targeted campaigns against small operators, limit how Tigo can use its expanded market position.

For Colombian consumers, the outcome will depend on whether the companies compete by offering better coverage and lower prices or whether the market settles into a pattern in which the two large players face limited pressure to compete on price. The coming months will offer a clearer picture of how the merger affects competition.

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