Colombia. The Impact Study of the Regulatory Framework 2015 – 2017, published by the CRC, focuses on evidencing the scope of the different measures implemented during the period. For the evaluation, the consultant proposed the possible contrast scenarios for each of the resolutions or topics to be analyzed, allowing to know the effect on the markets and agents that were impacted by the measure, and to make decisions consistent with the findings.
Among the results obtained, it is worth noting that the improvements in the quality of mobile services were greater in the less developed municipalities of the country, as well as that the resolutions issued to combat the theft of cell phones managed to put barriers to the chain of crime, reflecting a decrease in blockades due to theft.
According to the results, the deregulation of fixed-mobile tariffs (Resolution 4900 of 2016) for operators covered by the general authorization regime led to a decrease in prices and an increase in the traffic of fixed-mobile calls, especially in municipalities that previously did not generate much traffic for this type of calls.
For its part, the Quality Regime for Television Services (Resolution CRC 4735 of 2015) allowed that, as of 2017, there is information about indicators that reveal the quality of the service by channel and by municipality for each technology.
With Resolution CRC 5151 of 2017, which established the single contract model for fixed services and changed the rules for contract modifications, request for other services and changes of plans, there is evidence of an increase in the number of PQRs related to the attention received by users – which are used as an indirect way to measure users' understanding of their rights – behavior attributed to the measure and that it would reflect that users are better informed about their rights.
The evaluation of the Quality Regime of ICT Services (Resolutions CRC 5078 of 2016 and 5165 of 2017) evidenced the compliance by operators with the indicators established for all services and an improvement in some of them especially in services by 2G and 3G networks in the least developed municipalities of the country.
Finally, the analysis of the impact of Resolution CRC 4807 of 2015 showed positive effects on the indicators associated with the use of mobile internet by users of mobile virtual operators.
"With this information, the CRC seeks to make consequential decisions to improve its interventions, identify problems to be solved or demonstrate the possibility of eliminating the intervention advanced at some point, given that the conditions that led to said intervention have already been corrected," explained Carlos Lugo Silva, Executive Director of the CRC.
This is the fifth ex-post evaluation that the CRC has carried out since 2006. Since then, there have been positive repercussions of the measures issued by the Commission, represented mainly for the direct benefit of users, improvement of the quality of services and favorable conditions for sustained growth of the sector.
"The subsequent evaluation of the measures is a good practice of the makers of public policy and regulation, fundamental to determine if the interventions had the expected effect, generated adverse effects or the objective initially set was not achieved. For the Commission, it is of the utmost importance to have lessons learned that allow us to minimize errors and improve future decisions," concluded Lugo Silva.
See the Regulatory Framework Impact Study 2015 – 2017 here.
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