Valor Economico Friday reported that Mexico’s America Movil SA plans to invest 1.9 billion Brazilian reais ($1.2 billion) in its Brazilian mobile phone unit, Claro, in 2011, in a move aimed at enabling the Brazilian unit maintain its market share.

According to Economico, in recent months, TIM Participacoes SA, the local unit of Telecom Italia has closed in on Claro, which is the second-largest mobile phone operator in Brazil behind Vivo, of Spain’s Telefonica. Claro, with just over 25% market share, had moved into second place in 2008, overtaking TIM.

Erik Fernandes, Claro’s marketing director, said that market share data is cyclical, and the company won’t defend its second place at any cost. According to Fernandes, Claro may fall into third place, but it’s a cyclical issue.

Nevertheless, Fernandes denied that Claro has lost market share because it has been less aggressive, as the company seeks to integrate its long-distance and cable TV units.

According to Valor Economico, most of Claro’s spending this year will go towards increasing the ability to handle data, amid a boom in sales of smartphones. Valor Economico newspaper quoted senior Claro executives as having revealed the plans without mentioning names.

Claro’s director of value-added services said the Company’s focus is the network, because the advance of broadband demands that.

América Móvil is a telecommunication company headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the fourth largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers, one of the largest corporations in Latin America, and the world. A venture of Carlos Slim Helú, América Móvil provides services to over 215 million wireless subscribers in the American continent, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The company’s world headquarters are located in Mexico City, Mexico. Its Mexican subsidiary Telcel is the largest mobile operator in Mexico, commanding a market share in excess of 70 percent. In the United States, it operates under the trademarks TracFone, Net10, and Straight Talk, and is the leading national pre-paid wireless service.

It operates in many countries in the Caribbean and Latin America such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Puerto Rico; Comcel Colombia in Colombia; and Porta in Ecuador. In Brazil it operates the trademark Claro.

As of December 2010, the company has 265 million subscribers, making it one of the top 4 telcos in the world and has 290,000 kilometers of fiber optics, making it the largest in infrastructure.