Colombia. The Communications Regulation Commission, CRC , published the third report of the Observatory of Investment in Telecommunications in Colombia, which presents the official figures of the annual investment of telecommunications operators and sectoral public entities for the expansion of coverage and improvement of the quality of Internet services. telephony and subscription television for the year 2021.
According to the analyses developed by the Commission, the investment of telecommunications operators reached the sum of 7 billion pesos (about US$1,468 million) during 2021, a figure that corresponds to an additional 27.3% compared to what was registered for 2020. It is noteworthy that, during the pandemic, to meet the growing traffic and demand for Internet service, companies allocated an average of 23.2% of their operating income to investment, with WOM, ETB, CLARO and TIGO being the operators with the highest proportion destined to this item.
The report also indicates that, in 2021, from the public sector, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies concentrated most of its investments in projects aimed at closing the digital divide, bringing Internet to Colombians who, due to their location or condition, still do not have it. For its part, RTVC focused its investments on expanding the coverage of digital public television. With the above, the aggregate figure of public investment for these two entities in 2021 was 198 billion pesos.
"From the CRC we present to the sector, academia and other interested parties a new periodic report with which we facilitate access to historical information on annual investment in telecommunications from 2015 to 2021, as a valuable input for the preparation of follow-up studies to the sector that support regulatory and public policy decision-making that respond to the needs of the industry and users" said Paola Andrea Bonilla Castaño, Commissioner and Executive Director of the CRC.
For the latest Telecommunications Investment Data Flash, click here.
