Colombia. The Colombian government enacted a new law that declared the Internet an essential and universal public service in Colombia by amending Law 1341 of 2009.
"With this law, the Internet becomes an essential public service. This means that its importance and need for Colombians is comparable to water, electricity and gas. Therefore, operators must guarantee the continuous provision of the service for all and in emergency situations, such as the pandemic, they will not be able to suspend the installation, adaptation and maintenance of the networks, "explained President Duque.
For her part, Karen Abudinen, MINISTER OF INFORMATION, described the law as "a historic step by Colombia on its way to reduce the digital divide and increase opportunities for progress and development for thousands of Colombians who today live in the most remote rural areas. This law contributes to 70 percent of Colombia being connected by 2022."
The Benefits of the Law
Karen Abudinen explained that the law guarantees the effective right of access to the Internet, with affordable and competitive rates, regardless of geographical location and that in states of emergency and health emergency there is a minimum of navigability and free text messages for users.
For example, during the validity of states of emergency and health emergency, prepaid users will have access to the free sending of 200 text messages and the reception of these without restriction.
In the same case, postpaid users who are late in the payment of the bill and whose plan does not exceed $ 54,462, may make recharges to use the service in the prepaid mode; send 200 free text messages and receive these without any restrictions; free browsing in 30 Internet addresses that will be defined by the ICT Ministry with the support of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), to access health services, emergency care, government and education.
In addition, all users will be able to browse at no cost in an educational content portal chosen jointly by the Ministries of Education and ICT.
And to expand the coverage of Internet service in the most remote areas of the national territory, the law orders the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies (FUTIC) to create credit lines for residential fixed Internet operators with less than 30,000 users, exempting them from the payment of annual contribution to the CRC and the payment of periodic consideration to the fund.
"The exception of this payment will cease to apply if the operators are part of other companies after December 31 of this year (..) It has been shown that connectivity is not only a matter of cables and equipment, but of benefits of progress and development for society and people," Abudinen said.
Connectivity in Colombia
According to the most recent Quarterly ICT Bulletin, belonging to January and March 2021, Colombia surpassed the barrier of 8 million fixed internet accesses; an average contracted fixed Internet speed of 39.4 mbps; 32.9 million mobile internet accesses and 69 million cell phone lines.
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