As of 2 February, the former Compania Dominicana de Telefonos, more recently known as Codetel, officially became Verizon Dominicana. The company is the leading local, long-distance and wireless telephone service provider in the Dominican Republic. Verizon also has operations in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Contrary to its minority positioning in those countries’ telecommunications providers, Verizon owns 100% of the Dominican outfit and has owned and operated the business for more than 40 years. See http://www22.verizon.com/about/international/english/americas/in_dominican_republic.html