MADRID, June 27 (Reuters/Portaltic) -
Colombia Telecomunicaciones, Claro, a consortium of the Telecommunications Company of Bogotá (ETB) and Tigo de Millicom, Avantel and DirecTV, won on Wednesday an auction of radio spectrum to provide fourth-generation 4G telecommunications services in the South American country, the government said.
The Minister of Information and Communications Technologies, Diego Molano, said that for the six licenses granted to the winning companies in the most important auction of the sector in the history of the country, Colombia will receive 399.5 million dollars, well above the 233 million dollars that the Government initially expected.
The consortium called Azteca 4G, led by the Mexican group of the same name, was the only firm that did not obtain licenses in the auction.
Claro is a subsidiary of Mexico's América Móvil, which controls tycoon Carlos Slim, while Colombia Telecomunicaciones is controlled by Spain's Telefónica and the Colombian government is a shareholder.
The Telecommunications Company of Bogotá will enter the 4G market in partnership with Millicom's Tigo, as well as Avantel and DirecTv, which so far only offers satellite television service in Colombia.
"More competition comes to mobile telephony, more competition means higher quality and better prices for Colombians," Molano said at a press conference.
"With this successful auction we went from three operators in the third generation to six operators in the fourth generation," added the minister who assured that Colombia will become the Latin American country with the most competitors in the 4G market.
The only company that currently offers 4G services in Colombia is UNE.
Claro obtained a 30 MHz block in the 2,500 MHz band for which it will pay 62.2 million dollars. From the beginning, the company had the limitation to participate only in that band because it has a dominant position in which it concentrates more than 60 percent of cell phone users in Colombia.
DirecTV was awarded a 40 MHz open block and a 30 MHz block in the 2,500 MHz band for which it will pay 77.4 million dollars, while Avantel won a reserved block in the AWS band for which it will disburse 55.7 million dollars.
ETB and Tigo obtained an open block in the AWS band for which they will pay 101.5 million dollars, while Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Movistar), will disburse 102.6 million dollars for another open block in the AWS band.
The winners will have to cover the entire country with this technology, including the large cities that concentrate the greatest demand, as well as the smallest and most remote towns.
Additionally, they must contribute more than 550,000 tablets for public schools and colleges, as part of the Government's policy of massifying the use of the Internet and new communications technologies.
The Government is confident that the fourth generation will be operational by the end of this year. Auction winners will not be able to trade frequencies for the first five years.
The resources that the State will collect will be destined to the development of social programs that seek to bring technology to the poorest Colombians.
