ICT regulatory framework must ‘be flexible and innovative’: experts

The second day of the International ICT Congress, Andicom, which takes place in Cartagena, was marked by the thematic axis of regulation and public policy in the industry.
This lecture block was opened by the panel ‘ICT Policies for the sectors of the Economy’, in which Miguel Anzola, director of the National Spectrum Agency (ANE); Jorge Hernando Pedraza, Secretary General of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN); Samuel Hoyos, president of Asomóvil; and Paola Bonilla, executive director of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), under the moderation of Santiago Pinzón, vice president of digital transformation at Andi.

Faced with the elements that must be taken into account when consolidating ICT policies, Paola Bonilla stressed that for the construction of a regulatory framework is essential several factors: the first, the perspective of the regulator, with the application of increasingly innovative, more adaptable and more flexible tools; and second, integrate more efficient mechanisms for spectrum designation.

(The importance of an innovative regulation in ICT, according to the CRC).

“This will not only give a very important dynamism to the industry, but it will also give dynamism to the relationship with users. It is a fundamental point to be able to achieve a correct ICT policy and a policy that adapts to changes”, Bonilla remarked in his speech.

For his part, Jorge Hernando Pedraza, general secretary of the CAN, pointed out that from the community bloc they have been promoting both digital transformation, modernization and Closing the digital divide through public policies.

“Since before the pandemic we have been adopting these positions, what the health crisis did was further promote this digital transformation. I must emphasize that a society’s development policy should not have technology as its goal, technology is only a means. From the Andean Community we have been working on digital transformation and that is part of our programs,” added Pedraza.

At the turn of Samuel Hoyos, the president of Asomóvil affirmed that in order to consolidate these ICT policies, the sector must have legal certainty and deregulation that allows the deployment of infrastructure throughout the national territory. “We have come a long way, but there is a challenge and a long way to go in public policies and regulation should facilitate the investment process,” added Hoyos.

(Credit card purchases will be more expensive in September: why).

Regarding the issues related to the electromagnetic spectrum that should be taken into account in the regulatory framework, Miguel Anzola, director of the ANE, stated that this is an enabler and that it is necessary to seek “new ways of using the spectrum that allow the materialization of projects ”.

“From the point of view of the spectrum, this is an enabler, but it is not enough that the spectrum is cheap, even if the spectrum is free, if there are no projects or obligations, the objectives set will definitely not be achieved. This must be done because the period that the spectrum is assigned is renewed and it is 20 years and it is a golden opportunity for the country and the projects must materialize.

Operator Interventions

The country’s telecommunications operators also had a space to talk about the panorama of Colombian connectivity and the challenges that the sector will have to face in the coming years.

The person in charge of opening the block of interventions was Marcelo Cataldo, president of Tigo. The executive referred to the importance of reinforce the deployment of 4G networks in the country to close the digital divide, before making the leap to 5G technology
For his part, Sergio González Guzmán, president of the ETB, during his panel entitled ‘5G, an additional challenge to democratize the country’s connectivity’, proposed that the allocation of the 5G spectrum in Colombia should be fractional.

(Fractional 5G licenses and prioritizing 4G, operator proposal).

Within the framework of the Andicom Congress, Carlos Zenteno, president of Claro Colombia, pointed out that, in line with the recommendations of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, the ICT market “must be at the service of citizens.”
Likewise, the executive added that this must be accompanied by an “innovation, research and development” policy, focused on the digitization of the economy and the creation of a complete digitization ecosystem.

“The work to digitally transform the country must be joint, seeking alliances, synergies and efforts with common goals. An example of this is the alliance that we recently announced with Oracle, which will speed up digital transformation processes and simplify the move to the cloud for small, medium and large companies in the country”.

johana lorduy