Colombia. With extensive experience in the telecommunications sector, with emphasis on the Internet, film and television, Héctor G. Jaime Vega is today at the head of NAISP, the name that corresponds to the acronym of the National Association of Internet Service Providers.
This organization was constituted by Assembly on September 5, 2014, by small and medium entrepreneurs in the Telecommunications sector, with special interests in the provision of Internet service. It currently has 40 associates in ownership and an approximate number of 60 companies that are in the stage of adjustment to both organizational and governmental regulations in the field of telecommunications.
The associates are in 20 departments of Colombia, with a coverage close to 300 municipalities, where large telecommunications companies do not operate, due to their low profitability and the dispersed location of users, being in most of the rural sector and small towns. The Departments where the associates are located are: Arauca, Atlántico, Antioquia, Boyacá, Bogotá, Córdoba, Caquetá, Casanare, Caldas, Cauca Cesar, Cundinamarca, Huila, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Quindío, Santander and Valle del Cauca.
In a dialogue for the magazine TVyVideo+Radio, Héctor Jaime Vega commented:
Luis Pinto: What is the goal of this organization?
Héctor Jaime Vega: Our goal is to integrate the ISPs, who are in the pending Departments and even cover the Internet service, if it does not already exist, in fulfillment of our mission, as small entrepreneurs, building the country with the provision of the service to our forgotten compatriots and for this 2017 continue with the training days on regulatory and organizational issues with the collaboration of the C.R.C and the Chambers of Commerce and start the meetings with the ANE, to receive the information corresponding to the Technical Regime applied to the use of the spectrum.
In the same way, implement the content service, for the clients of the associates, through Streaming platforms, with the collaboration of television graduates, and foreign companies that have designed a product according to the needs and capabilities of our associates. With this we intend, continue to offer our associates, first-hand information, for the benefit of their economic interests, since knowing the regulations, they manage to comply with it, avoiding fines and sanctions.
We also seek that they have the opportunity to grow, through "new businesses" and value-added services that they can provide to their customers, who will demand more bandwidth and current consumption will grow. Finally, and as a primary purpose, it is possible to reach isps, who are not yet affiliated, due to lack of information or ignorance of the benefits they can achieve by being associated.
L.P.: Why join NAISP?
H.J.V.: Because we are an association, tailored to its associates, where "Everyone is Equal", they have the same duties and obligations and are governed by Statutes where there are no classes or categories and work together to achieve objectives and prioritize collaboration and respect for other partners without falling into the temptation of exploitation for particular benefit. We are also the union that already has fixed costs and that will not grow more, which makes us provide in the future that the monthly support fee is getting lower every day by receiving more associates who are scattered in the rest of the country.
Because we are really working for the defense of the "small businessman" making ourselves known to the control entities, so that when they legislate we are taken into account and do not equate us with the large telecommunications companies mostly foreign, but that the term "Paragraph. Except for small ISP companies", as the Government of Argentina has just done, through ENACOM, where they opened the arrival of more telecommunications companies, but leaving a reserve to be covered by small companies.
L.P.: How have you managed to keep this organization in place?
H.J.V.: Because we have done the job well from the beginning, getting to where the small entrepreneurs are, who before looking for "big businesses", seek to maintain the right to work, freedom of enterprise and be a means to offer service with emphasis on the social to their countrymen.
L.P.: What benefits have NAISP associates received?
H.J.V.: Having the expertise in organization and methods, gave us the reason that most small entrepreneurs, associates, were immersed and subject to sanctions for non-compliance with most of the rules that govern the ICT sector, which led us to have an approach with the Communications Regulation Commission, to whom we requested the accompaniment and held some "meetings with the C.R.C. And the Chambers of Commerce", bringing them the information and training necessary to be good entrepreneurs and have the information corresponding to the activity as AN ISP. Managing to bring together about 200 companies in five cities where we program the activities with the support of the chambers of commerce, an activity that this year 2017, we will continue to add to the other actors of government control such as the ANE, the SIC and the MINTIC. Also the recognition and benefits for agreements with suppliers that represent lower cost for the associates.
L.P.: What is NAISP currently working on?
H.J.V.: Last year, we had an event that delayed the work we had been developing and we had to dedicate a few months to recover the north and the helmsman of the association. Today we can say that we are in a good moment, receiving new affiliates and working for them with advice on tax, business, CRC and FONTIC issues, in terms of their obligations and soon our participation in Andina Link 2017, where we will hold our 3rd annual meeting of affiliates and present a streaming solution for the benefit of the rural population where most ISPs are located; where large companies do not reach because they are not niches of their interest.
Additionally, we will continue to get sponsor support to help us keep the association current and be able to continue with our work as an ISP, where most think first of "serving" and then of the economy.
Text written by Luis Pinto, advisor of TvyVideo+Radio.
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