Colombia. After declaring telecommunications as essential services, the CRC established, through Resolution 5951 of 2020, new measures focused on guaranteeing citizens' access to telephone and internet services, as well as the continuous provision of these services.
In the first place, transitional billing and collection rules were defined according to which, during the period of validity of the State of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency declared by Decree 417 of 2020, the operators of telephony, Internet and television subscription services may not generate any charge associated with interest for late payment for the non-payment of the service. The Commission clarified that in any case this temporary facility does not imply the forgiveness of the sums owed.
The foregoing, in addition to the provisions of the aforementioned Decree 464, according to which mobile operators that provide services in postpaid mode, must grant their users an additional period of 30 days for the payment of their invoices, guaranteeing during this period a minimum capacity of 0.5 Gigabytes. If, after this period, the user does not make the payment of his obligation, he will have the possibility to send 200 free text messages (SMS) and to browse for free in 20 Internet addresses related to health services, emergency care, government and education.
Secondly, the Commission strengthened the conditions under which operators providing Internet access services are authorised to manage the traffic through their networks, thereby strengthening the rules that were defined by the Commission since 2011. The above, in order to guarantee access to the Internet by citizens during the period of declaration of pandemic, and that the regulator has relevant information through the implementation of information reports every two (2) days during the emergency period.
Through this measure, it is sought that operators guarantee the continuity of the provision of the service and permanent access to content related to health services, government and public sector pages, the development of work activities, education and the exercise of fundamental rights. The prioritization for access to these contents will apply individually for each operator, and may be used only in those cases in which high increases in traffic demand and degradation of the quality of service in their respective network are evidenced, as long as the application of the traffic management mechanisms allowed since 2011 in the regulation do not allow to solve these problems.
"With these new measures, the Commission continues to make efforts to guarantee effective access to telecommunications services for users, in conjunction with the industry and considering the availability of services as a priority in the country during the current emergency," concluded Carlos Lugo Silva, Commissioner and Executive Director of the CRC.
For Resolution 5951 of 2020, click here.
https://www.crcom.gov.co/uploads/images/files/Resoluci%C3%B3n%20CRC%205951%20de%202020.pdf
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