In the legislative period of the Colombian Congress that begins in March, the two remaining debates will be held for the approval of the ICT modernization bill promoted by the government.
Richard Santa
In order to improve connectivity throughout the country and update the regulation of the ICT sector and public television and radio, recognizing them as a single sector, the Colombian government proposed a bill called Modernization of the ICT sector, which generated a great controversy since it was presented last September.
In its justification, the project maintains that "For decades the sectors of: electronics and computing, telecommunications, and media and content production had clearly differentiated and independent value chains, however, the development of broadband Internet and the appearance of multifunctional terminals, led to conditions for the emergence of an environment of convergence giving way to a digital ecosystem, which is understood as the set of infrastructures and benefits, associated with the provision of content and services through the Internet. This set is integrated through computer and communications technologies, where the boundaries between the business segments of the industry are not clearly defined."
To achieve this, one of the objectives of the project is to change the way the radio spectrum is allocated, extending the award period from 10 to 30 years, granting benefits to companies that deploy infrastructure to areas where there is no connectivity or is of low quality, in order to attract greater investment from companies in the sector.
As far as television is concerned, the project proposes substantial changes related to the regulatory body and public media. Among others, it proposes the elimination of the National Television Authority, ANTV, and provides new regulatory tools to the Communications Regulation Commission, which would become a convergent regulator and the ICT Ministry will assume the functions of inspection, surveillance and control.
It also proposes a new way of financing public television, one of the aspects that has generated the most controversy. The project creates the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies, which would unite the funds of FonTV managed by ANTV and FonTIC.
The CRC will be made up of five full-time commissioners for fixed institutional periods of four years, not re-eligible, with voice and vote, not subject to the provisions that regulate the administrative career. At least one commissioner must be an electronic or telecommunications engineer, a commissioner will be a lawyer, and a commissioner will be an economist.
The Commissioners shall be appointed as follows:
(a) Two members appointed by the President of the Republic.
b) Two members elected by the President of the Republic by public call, in which any interested citizen who meets the requirements of this article may apply.
(c) A member elected by the President of the Republic from a shortlist of representatives nominated by public television channels.
According to the MINISTER OF ICT of Colombia, Sylvia Constaín, the law that governs in Colombia is outdated for the new realities of the sector, which is why it is urgent to approve the new bill. He also assured that this project is based on the examples of successful regulations from different countries, as well as on studies of the sector carried out between 2016 and 2018 by the National Planning Department.
Controversies over the law
There are many controversies that this bill has had, which even forced the government to postpone its intention to approve it with an urgent message to Congress in December, due to the discontent of many sectors that have been affected.
The main criticisms of the project have been for issues such as:
- The exploitation and use of the radio spectrum. The government is accused of wanting to benefit large companies in the sector.
- The independence of the convergent regulator. The OECD recommended that Colombia have a convergent operator that is independent of the government. As the appointment of the commissioners of the CRC is proposed, it will be the President who chooses the five members.
- The financing of public media. The ANTV in recent years has strengthened public television through the financing of projects by FonTV. With the integration of FonTIC and FonTV, regional channels will now have to compete with more projects to obtain resources.
- The definition of fair compensation for operators of telecommunications services such as cable and television services. As well as the definition of policies to promote audiovisual content for education and culture.
- The revision of the model of television and public media for the country.
The renowned television critic, Ómar Rincón, said about the project that "it is not of convergence because it does not include OTT platforms; it has no content sovereignty, does not talk about content, does not protect the national industry in content production and leaves OTT without content regulation; and the most serious is that it is governmentalized, because the contents will be handled by the ICT Ministry."
The agreements reached
In order to approve the ICT modernization project at the beginning of the 2019 legislature, the government, with Minister Sylvia Constaín at the head, has been in charge of seeking agreements with different sectors on the differences. To this end, between January and February it held 11 socialization meetings of the project in an equal number of cities in the country. It also agreed to reduce the spectrum concession from 30 to 20 years, extendable according to the conditions of the moment.
Regarding the financing of public media, it was agreed that at least the maximum amount of resources that, since the creation of the Fund for the Development of Television and Content (FonTV) in 2012, were allocated by it to RTVC and regional television channels will be maintained annually.
Likewise, at least the average amount allocated to RTVC by the Information and Communications Technologies Fund (FonTIC), since its creation, for public sound broadcasting will be maintained. These amounts will be adjusted by the same percentage of annual variation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). In addition, the Minister assured that a policy for public media will be studied, in order to strengthen them.
On the independent convergent regulator, no changes have been applied so far. The Minister stressed that the OECD recommendations are that, recommendations and it is not mandatory for countries. In addition, that the government will guarantee the election of suitable people for this new regulatory entity and that with the definition of the legal nature of the Entity, which satisfies the constitutional criteria related to the configuration of administrative independence.
Although the government has reached consensus on different controversial points of the bill, its path in Congress will not be easy, since there are still many sectors against it and the message of urgency in which the Minister insists also generates discomfort.
