Santo Domingo.– Trilogy International Partners (TIP), the company that bought the Dominican Republic operations of Centennial last year, plans to invest US$50mn in Trilogy Dominicana this year.

According to Juan Pablo Calvo, VP for Latin American operations of the Trilogy International division, the investment amount would add to the US$100mn invested in Trilogy Dominicana last year, the local press reported.

Trilogy Dominicana is due in the next few days to relaunch its operations using the Viva GSM brand that TIP's Bolivian unit Nuevatel PCS uses, Calvo said.

The company will focus on 3G mobile data services. Trilogy also has operations in Haiti with Communication Cellulaire d'Haiti.

In the Dominican Republic market, Trilogy competes with Claro, a unit of América Móvil, which acquired in 2006 the operations of Verizon, as well as Tricom and Orange Dominicana, of France Telecom.

The Dominican Republic has some 5.5mn mobile lines in service and a penetration rate of around 60% from a population of 9.1mn, the newspaper said, citing national statistics office ONE.

Trilogy's operation is placed third in the market with some 300,000 clients, giving it a 10% market share. The company will operate with GSM and CDMA technology.