Algar Telecom is a Brazilian telecommunications company present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and in the Federal District as well. The company is the only operator that remained private, even after the creation of Telebrás in the military regime, and it is characterized as the fifth largest company in the telecommunications segment. It serves more than one million and four hundred thousand customers - individuals, micro and small businesses, corporate customers, and carriers. History Algar Telecom, headquartered in Uberlândia - State of Minas Gerais, is one of the companies of Grupo Algar and was founded with the name CTBC - Companhia Telefônica da Borda do Campo on February 15, 1954, by Alexandrino Garcia, who acquired Companhia Telefônica Teixeirinha. Alexandrino was 47 years old when he started the business in the telephony industry and began, at the time, to personally sell the services of the company. Initially, the company worked with a focus on the countryside, in the well-known "Central Brazil," covering part of the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo. Later, it started to cover the region of Alta Mogiana, in São Paulo, the east of Mato Grosso do Sul, the region of Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba - Minas Gerais - and the southern region of the state of Goiás. Its area of operation includes the main capitals of Brazil and their surroundings, including São Paulo, Campinas, Ribeirão Preto, São José do Rio Preto, Goiânia, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Uberlândia, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Balneário Camboriú, Florianópolis, and Porto Alegre, among others. In 2007, the company made a public issue of debentures and became a publicly-traded company, not listed on stock exchanges. In 2010, it was granted a license to operate in the H Band, the last one available for 3G telephony. It may operate in the regions with DDDs (area codes) 34, 35 and 37. In cities such as Divinópolis, Itaúna, Araxá, Bom Despacho, Claudio, Poços de Caldas, and Itajubá, increasing its coverage area from 87 cities to 233. In 2013, the operator has completed the strategic branding cycle of Grupo Algar (in 2009, Grupo Algar decided for a single-brand strategy, that is, all its businesses would have Algar as a name) with the evolution of its retail brand and the permanent replacement of the