Colombia. After the closing of the first stage of the call for the viability of community radio station licenses, the ICT Ministry received 1,358 expressions of interest in providing the sound broadcasting service, from organized communities in the country. These are located in 31 departments and Bogotá.
The expressions of interest were made through a form enabled for this purpose, published on the MinTIC website, between October 1 and November 1 of this year.
By departments, the largest number of demonstrations filed come from Nariño, with 160; followed by Bolívar, with 142; Boyacá, with 139, and Córdoba with 118. The only department that did not participate in this phase was Vaupés.
With the call for the granting of viability of licenses for community radio stations, the national government seeks to open new spaces in regions where the service is not currently available, to provide their populations with greater opportunities for development.
The granting of viability for community radio licenses will be carried out through an Objective Selection Process, which began with the expression of interest stage. After this stage, which is not binding, the analysis of the availability of channels by the National Spectrum Agency and the design of the specifications of the call will continue, the draft of which is expected to be published for comments in the next three months.
