America Movil (AMX) Claro Jamaica's Mexican parent said that its subscriber base in Jamaica jumped 25 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, or by 100,000 to 500,000.

"Oceanic Digital Jamaica Limited, or "Oceanic," provides wireless and value added services throughout Jamaica, with 0.5 million wireless subscribers as of March 31, 2010," said a filing by AMX to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In March, the Mexican firm had declared its Jamaican operation had 0.4 million subscribers at the end of December 2009.

LIME claimed 700,000 subscribers at the end of 2009 while Digicel claims two million.

AMX declared the subscriber base in its notification to the SEC on plans to raise euro1.75 billion and £650 million through the issue of debt instruments.

Operating revenue for Claro's Caribbean operation (Jamaica and Puerto Rico) climbed from 12.9 billion Mexican pesos in 2008 to $14.8 billion pesos ($105 billion) in 2009 while operating income fell from $1.6 billion pesos to $361,000 pesos last year, or a 78 per cent decline.

But wireless services only accounted for 36.4 per cent of its operating revenue in 2009, which means that from the 1.23 million wireless subscribers across the two countries brought in $5.4 billion pesos ($38.6 billion) in revenue .

AMX said that the average revenue per user (ARPU) decreased by one per cent in 2009 -- calculated both in terms of Mexican pesos and in local currencies -- but, even while Claro Jamaica realigned its call rates in an aggressive drive to grap market share, it was "the reduction in prices of voice services, principally in Puerto Rico", where that operations includes over 700,000 fixed line subscribers and 200,000 broadband subscribers, was the primary reason for the decline in average revenue.

AMX said that it "expects the acquisition of Oceanic Digital Jamaica Limited (operating as Claro in Jamaica) to contribute to its the strategy of becoming the leading wireless communication provider in Latin America".

As of December 31, 2009, AMX had 201 million wireless subscribers in 18 countries,