NII Holdings Names Claudio Hidalgo President of Nextel Chile

RESTON, Va., March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NII Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NIHD), a leading provider of mobile communication services operating under the Nextel brand in Latin America, has announced today that it has appointed Claudio Hidalgo as the new President of Nextel Chile.

"I am pleased to introduce Claudio Hidalgo as the new President of Nextel Chile," said Steve Dussek, NII Holdings' Chief Executive Officer. "He has an outstanding professional track record as an operator of wireless companies in Chile and other Latin American markets and Claudio is an important addition to our leadership team bringing significant industry expertise and experience as we pursue our plans to launch our new 3G network in Chile."

Hidalgo received his degree in commercial engineering from the Gabriela Mistral University.  His professional experience includes serving as Vice President of mobile telephony for VTR Global in Chile, as President and Chief Executive Officer for mobile telephony for the Panama and Nicaragua divisions of Telefonica Moviles from 2004 to 2007, and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Movistar Puerto Rico between 1999 and 2004. He has also held positions in the marketing area of VTR Celular (which merged with Telefonica Moviles), Ford Motor Company and AFP Provida S.A. in Chile.

Eduardo Gonzalez, who previously served as general manager for Nextel Chile, will continue in a new leadership role assuming the role of Vice President of business development responsible for commercial partnerships as well as the management of the company's regulatory and legislative relationships.  

"Eduardo Gonzalez has been instrumental in the development of our strategy in Chile and I am pleased that he has agreed to take on this important role for the company," Dussek said.  "We believe that the addition of Claudio to the team and Eduardo's work in his new role will be critical to the company's success in pursuing its 3G strategy in Chile."  

About NII Holdings, Inc.

NII Holdings, Inc., a publicly held company based in Reston, Va., is a leading provider of mobile communications for business customers in Latin America. NII Holdings, Inc. has operations in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile offering a fully integrated wireless communications tool with digital cellular voice services, data services, wireless Internet access and Nextel Direct Connect® and International Direct Connect^™, a digital two-way radio feature. NII Holdings, Inc., a Fortune 1000 company, trades on the NASDAQ market under the symbol NIHD and is a member of the NASDAQ 100 Index. Visit the Company's website at http://www.nii.com.

Nextel, the Nextel logo, and Nextel Direct Connect are trademarks and/or service marks of Nextel Communications, Inc.

SOURCE NII Holdings, Inc.