Colombia will be auctioning an additional 25 MHz of spectrum — 5 MHz in 900 and 20 MHz in 1900 MHz – in coming months in a bid to enhance mobile broadband networks.
Colombia’s National Spectrum Agency is yet to finalize the dateline for the spectrum auction plan which is expected to attract telecom operators such as Claro, Movistar and Tigo.
Recently, 4G Americas, an industry body for telecom segment, has suggested auctioning spectrum in two blocks of 10 MHz for the 900 MHz band and one block of 5 MHz for the 1900 MHz band to ensure better participation from telecoms.
At present, Colombia has 49 million mobile subscribers out of 714 million mobile subscribers in the Latin American region. Mobile broadband data growth in Latin America is expected to increase by 900 percent during 2013-2019.
During last year’s spectrum auction that allocated 190 MHz, Colombia was positioned as one of Latin America’s leaders in the assignment of spectrum for the deployment of mobile broadband technologies, reaching a total of 395 MHz allocated. Claro, Movistar, Tigo / ETB, Avantel, as well as a new market entrant in the form of the broadcaster DirecTV participated in the 2013 auction.
In 2013, 4G Americas said 21 percent of spectrum in Latin America was allocated compared to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendations of 1300 MHz by 2015 to enable the rapid development of mobile broadband technologies.
Jose Otero, director of Latin America for 4G Americas, said: “We look forward to an open process that doesn’t impose artificial barriers to any interested stakeholders that would like to participate in the auction.”
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
