Altice Dominicana, S.A., formerly known as Tricom, is the second largest landline service provider in the Dominican Republic. Since 2013, it is part of the French Netherlands-based Altice. It owns and operates a major

HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

Cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

service (which also operated under its former names "Telecable Nacional" and "Tricom") along with landline and wireless voice services. Its

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

branch offers residential bandwidth with speeds up to 300 Mbit/s and is also a national

mobile network operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a mobile network provider, mobile network carrier, mobile , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, wireless operator, wireless telco, or cellular company, is a telecommunications provider of se ...

Background

In 1988, Zona Franca de San Isidro spawned San Isidro Teleport, which was later renamed Tricom. In 1990, the company had reached an agreement with the Dominican Republic to provide communications services nationwide.

Timeline

On May 20, 1992, the company began to implement "Long Distance Call Centers", entering the business of international long-distance services. In 1993, Tricom sold

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

a 40% stake in the company with a goal of improving their local and international infrastructure. On November 17, 1994, Tricom and

CODETEL Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, doing business as, Claro (formerly CODETEL), is the largest telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic and provides local, long-distance, and wireless voice services, as well as Internet and IPTV serv ...

connected their telephone exchanges, allowing a massive installation of residential lines. Following is the implementation of pagers, paging services, and mobile products. In 1995 the first long-distance prepaid card, "Efectiva", was made public. In 1996, Tricom implemented Motorola's Digital Telephone services which allowed the installation of residential and business lines in just 48 hours. Amigo, the country's first prepaid wireless provider, is launched in 1997. Meanwhile, TRICOM USA is created to offer long-distance services to the Hispanic community in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 1998, Tricom placed 5,700,000 shares of common

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), becoming the first Dominican company to be listed in the U.S. stock market. In 1999, the company achieved 300,000 customers, becoming the leader in mobile communications in addition to servicing 68% of the country's landlines. In 2004, the company was de-listed from the

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

. On June 5, 2012, Tricom announced their intent to begin a buildout of a

Hybrid fibre-coaxial Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) is a broadband telecommunications network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. It has been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s. In a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable syst ...

network across Bayahibe,

Bonao Bonao is a city in the Cibao region of Dominican Republic. It is the capital of the Monseñor Nouel province. The city is located in the center of the country, to the northwest of the national capital Santo Domingo. The city is known as "Villa ...

Casa de Campo The Casa de Campo (, for Spanish: ''Country House'') is the largest public park in Madrid. It is situated west of central Madrid, Spain. It gets its name 'Country House' because it was once a royal hunting estate, located just west of the R ...

, La Romana, La Vega, San Cristóbal,

San Francisco de Macorís San Francisco de Macorís is a city in the Dominican Republic located in the northeast portion of the country, in the Cibao region. It is the capital of the Duarte Province and the sixth most populated city in the country since 2010. The name ...

San Pedro de Macorís San Pedro de Macorís is a city and municipality (''municipio'') in the Dominican Republic. The capital of its eponymous province in the east region of the country, it is among the ten largest cities of the Dominican Republic. The city has approx ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, and

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

. On July 4, 2012, Tricom announced they were going to begin a build out of a 4G-LTE network. On March 13, 2013, Tricom launched a

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

service, becoming the second Dominican provider after

Claro República Dominicana Compañía Dominicana de Teléfonos, doing business as, Claro (formerly CODETEL), is the largest telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic and provides local, long-distance, and wireless voice services, as well as Internet and IPTV serv ...

to offer a VOD service. On March 18, 2013, Tricom launched their 4G-LTE network and became the second Dominican provider after

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

to offer LTE for modems. On May 2, 2013, Tricom launched their LTE network for mobile phones, becoming the first Dominican provider to offer LTE for mobiles. On November 27, 2013, Orange sold its Dominican unit to Tricom's Parent company, Altice, for US$1.435 billion. The merger was approved and finalized on November 21, 2017, with the Orange and Tricom brand names permanently retired and both of Tricom's and Orange's Cellular networks integrated to Altice's own cellular network. The company began using the Altice name as their brand for their services.

Notes

{{Telecommunications companies of the Dominican Republic Altice (company) Telecommunications companies of the Dominican Republic Telecommunications companies established in 1988 Brands of the Dominican Republic 2013 mergers and acquisitions Dominican Republic companies established in 1988