Movistar Becomes Tigo as Millicom Closes Colombia Deal

Movistar's name is disappearing from Colombian phones and bills as Tigo takes its place. Millicom completed its takeover of Movistar's parent company, Colombia Telecomunicaciones, and announced the change with a brief message: “Movistar ahora es Tigo,” or “Movistar is now Tigo.” It's a rebrand, but it also closes a deal that took more than a year to assemble.

Millicom built its position in stages. It bought EPM's stake in January, took part of Telefónica's holdings in February, then acquired the national government's share of Colombia Telecomunicaciones in late April. Colombia's competition authority approved the integration in November 2025, but imposed conditions because the deal affected 19 markets, including mobile service, home internet and television.

The Money Behind the Switch

Tigo plans to invest about US$2.6 billion over four years. Millicom has already spent US$1.4 billion acquiring shares in the two businesses, on top of that planned investment. Together, the sums make this one of the larger telecom commitments in the country's recent history, and the company is betting it can recoup the money in a market where it must fight for every line.

Tigo Colombia CEO Carlos Blanco sought to reassure consumers about the transition. He said the company would honor existing contracts, keep prices and payment methods the same, and let customers retain their SIM cards and phone numbers. Nobody needs to buy a new plan or visit a store. Bills will begin displaying the Tigo logo in October; in November, phone screens will switch automatically from Movistar to Tigo. Service-point signs will change more gradually.

The company said prices won't rise automatically. Future changes remain possible, but Tigo would announce them in advance under consumer-information rules. For customers who've watched mobile bills creep upward for years, that promise matters more than a new logo.

Conditions and the Competitive Picture

Regulators didn't approve the deal without strings. Their conditions require fair rates for smaller operators that rent network access, transparent bundled offers and four years of independent audits. The rules also bar targeted campaigns against small operators. They aim to stop a larger Tigo from squeezing rivals out of the market, the kind of oversight the authority judged necessary for the merger.

The combined company reaches about 35 million users. Claro, Colombia's market leader, serves 40.9 million lines. That leaves two dominant players in the mobile market, a structure critics of consolidation will cite as the deal's real cost. Claro responded with a public manifesto declaring, “leadership is not declared, it is demonstrated.” It argued Colombia needs the capacity to move, store, process and protect information so technology can translate into productivity and opportunity. Claro said it would keep investing and improving services, but gave no figures in its statement.

Merger supporters told the competition authority that a larger company with more resources could compete directly with Claro. They argued it could potentially improve networks and customer offers. Time will tell whether that happens. The reporting said the merger's effect on competition would become clearer in the coming months, and that's the honest verdict for now.

Changan's Latin American Push

Far from Bogotá, Changan Automobile promoted its global ambitions at the Mondial de l'Auto 2026 in Paris. Under the theme “Firmly Rooted, Growing Together,” the company announced upgrades to its Vast Ocean Plan and presented a global product lineup. It said it was advancing its globalization strategy and moving toward global system-based operations.

The CHANGAN CS55 PLUS BlueCore HEV, which uses iDE-H architecture and needs no external charging, appeared at the show and will continue rolling out across Latin America. The CHANGAN NEVO Q05, described as a leading-selling family electric SUV in China, made its European debut. It has sold in Colombia and Uruguay since August 2026 and is scheduled to enter Ecuador, Chile, Peru and other Latin American countries. DEEPAL S05 and S07 are also set to expand across the region, while the AVATR CONCEPT T09 made its global premiere as part of the premium-brand push. Changan named Portuguese footballer Luís Figo Product Experience Ambassador to support brand communications globally and in Latin America.

The sales figures behind the push are substantial. Changan said it sold 2.913 million vehicles worldwide in 2025, up 8.5% year over year. New-energy vehicle sales reached 1.109 million, up 51%, while overseas sales hit 637,000, up 18.9%. The upgraded Vast Ocean Plan calls for more than 40 new global models and overseas production capacity exceeding 800,000 units. Changan named Latin America a key strategic market and said it is moving beyond simply exporting products toward building local industry, drawing on a global research and development system across five countries and nine centers.

Changan said it uses uniform global validation standards. Its withU customer-care brand covers after-sales service, maintenance, roadside assistance and service networks. In the region, the company plans to improve spare-parts supply and roadside support, work with local partners, and develop new-energy and intelligent products.

Why This Matters: Colombian phone customers will mostly notice a new logo, but the deal changes who controls the country's mobile market. With Claro and Tigo now the two dominant players, the competition authority's conditions—including audits and limits on campaigns against small operators—serve as the main check on pricing and competition. Millicom's roughly US$4 billion in combined commitments, counting the US$1.4 billion already spent and the US$2.6 billion planned, amounts to a large private bet that the market will reward scale. Whether it pays off depends on whether the promised investment reaches the networks and whether prices stay where the company says they will. Changan faces the same basic test in another market: the Chinese automaker wants to move from shipping cars into Latin America to building its own local industry, and the shift will be measured in parts supply, service coverage and sales numbers in the years ahead.