Colombia. To comply with all the plans to enter the subscription television business, the Telecommunications Company of Bogotá, ETB, will invest over the next five years about US $ 1,000 million, an investment that includes the modernization of its networks to be able to offer a quality IP platform.
The president of the company, Saúl Kattan, explained that this renewal of its networks aims to have a better quality in the television services that it will begin to offer from the first half of 2013 and thus be able to have an interactive television service supported in an IP network.
In order to finance this process, the company plans to issue bonds for US$500 million. But the issue is awaiting approval from Colombia's Finance Ministry, headed by Mauricio Cárdenas Santamaría.
The President of ETB added that these actions are part of the plan for the state company, after the decision not to sell it but to strengthen it, including its other business areas.
Therefore, the US$1 billion investment plan includes the change of its copper networks located in Bogotá for fiber optic networks. Thus, once and for all, they are preparing to participate in the auction of 4G licenses that will be held in the country in the coming months, in which their mobile phone services also count.
