Colombia. The communications sector in Colombia will know in detail the conditions of competition in mobile markets, as well as the habits and experiences of consumers, thanks to the "Review of mobile services markets" and the "Study of Habits and Uses of Mobile Services", disclosed by the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC).
With the study "Review of Mobile Services Markets", the CRC manages to characterize the conditions of competition in the different relevant markets such as 'mobile outgoing voice', 'Mobile Internet', 'mobile services', 'mobile access and origination' and 'mobile-mobile call termination', in order to propose measures that increase the degree of competition in these markets and, at the same time, ensure the well-being of users.
Through the competition analysis carried out, the CRC identifies the competition problems to be corrected and establishes the obligation to provide wholesale access and a remuneration rule for access to mobile networks, which seek to promote competition in the "mobile access and origination" market. In addition, under the analysis of the 4G access infrastructure, an update of the values of mobile network access charges is proposed and the cost model used for this purpose is published.
Similarly, the CRC publishes the "Study of Habits and Uses of Mobile Services", carried out by the National Consulting Center, which focused on knowing and understanding the consumer experience with respect to the use and attitudes towards mobile communications services. This study was the result of the application of 7,500 surveys in the main cities of the country, including Leticia and San Andrés.
Habits and Uses of Mobile Services
According to the study, 27% of the population has two or more cell lines, which is equivalent to an average of 1.31 active cell lines per person, that is, despite the fact that there are more than 57 million active cell lines in the country, not all the Colombian population has a mobile line. It is estimated that the penetration of mobile phone service, controlled by the number of lines per person, is equivalent to approximately 91%.
In addition, it was identified that the reasons why users choose a mobile internet and telephone service operator are related to "Coverage", "Quality of Service" and "Plan Cost".
On the other hand, the three variables of greatest importance for the choice of a plan are: (i) Gigabytes of navigation; (ii) Minutes included and (iii) the price of the plan.
Faced with the way in which users consume mobile services, it was found that 30% of users have in their plan only voice services, 8% data services and, 62% have chosen a plan in which they have access to a combination or package of mobile services.
With regard to Internet access, it was identified that 60% of the population accesses the Internet from their mobile connected to a Wi-Fi network, 56% do it through contracts / plan and 29% through recharges.
79% of users use their cellular equipment to make phone calls, 78% to send messages by chat, 66% do it to access social networks, 62% to search the Internet, 60% to use email, and 40% make calls for applications and listen to music using them.
Only 13% of users consider having completely replaced mobile telephony with calling applications through data, while 27% of users consider having completely replaced mobile telephony with messaging applications through mobile data.
Industry Comments
The document and the regulatory proposal are published on the website of the CRC (www.crcom.gov.co) with the purpose of receiving feedback from the agents of the sector. It is expected that once the documents are known by the interested parties in the communications sector, they will send their comments or considerations on the regulatory proposal, until December 5, through the email [email protected], via fax to the 3198301, Social Networks, or at the offices of the CRC located at Calle 59A Bis No. 5 – 53 Piso 9, Link Siete Sesenta Building, in the city of Bogotá D.C
