(The Associated Press) - "Venezuela's newly nationalized telecommunications company plans to cut mobile phone rates while also offering cheaper fixed-line rates for the poor, President Hugo Chávez said.

The nationalization of CA Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela, or CANTV, will now allow the company to cut cellular phone rates by 20 percent the end of August, Chávez said. The government has said that CANTV will remain a self-sufficient, profitable company after the nationalization.

CANTV has 6.7 million cellular customers through its affiliate Movilnet, which is the country's largest mobile phone service provider.

The other main cell phone operators in Venezuela are Digitel - a unit of Telvenco SA, which is controlled by investor Oswaldo Cisneros - and Movistar, owned by Spain's Telefónica SA.

The Venezuelan leader said CANTV would also install 1.2 million fixed telephone lines by the end of the year as the company brings services to rural, poverty-stricken areas. He did not give details on the lower rates for poor fixed-line customers.

The government assumed operational control of the Caracas-based company on May 21, completing its nationalization by appointing a new board of directors.

Chávez's government gained full control of CANTV by raising its ownership stake to 86.2 percent, in part by paying US$572 million (€425.15 million) to New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. for its 28.5 percent stake in the company.

CANTV, which had been privatized in 1991, has nearly 13,000 employees and currently has 3.2 million fixed-line customers".