Colombia. With a total of 23 proposals submitted, the implementation of the Regulatory Sandbox led by the CRC began successfully, which aims to promote innovation and increase the speed of adaptation of the regulatory framework to technological advances, as well as promote the expansion of the offer of products, services and solutions in the ICT sector, to which Colombians can access.
The Regulatory Sandbox is an alternative regulatory mechanism, which offers companies the possibility of exempting products and services from compliance with the regulation for a certain time and geography to experiment with new business models in environments controlled by the Regulator.
The project began in May 2020 with the definition of the general conditions of implementation, after which a preparation stage was carried out with the support of LAB 101 of the National University of Colombia, in which tools and methodologies were provided that would facilitate the structuring of proposals to the different agents through 18 workshops and 2 conversations, as well as personalized technical support with the development of more than 36 consultancies.
Finally, in April 2021 the call was opened, which resulted in the receipt of proposals from 18 Telecommunications Network and Service Providers (including fixed and mobile telecommunications service providers, television service operators and internet service providers), 3 Postal Service Operators and 2 Content and Application Providers, located in different departments of the country.
"For the Commission it is great news to close the application phase to the Regulatory Sandbox with the nomination of 23 proposals from different types of companies, large and small, also counting on the presence of the regions in this first call," explained Sergio Martínez Medina, Commissioner and Executive Director of the CRC.
Once the receipt of proposals is concluded, the technical team of the CRC, in the company of LAB 101 of the National University of Colombia, will begin the verification of compliance with the enabling requirements and will publish the projects that are enabled for the evaluation of proposals in which the projects that will be experienced within the framework of the regulatory Sandbox are defined.
"From this balance we can conclude that there is great interest in the industry to innovate in the provision of its services and that they trust the CRC as a regulator that supports this evolution, taking advantage of this type of mechanism. We thank the companies that with their participation help us to take an important step for the transformation of public policy and the evolution of Telecommunications and Postal services, "concluded Director Martínez.
