ICT Ministry will have UN support for 5G auction

With a delegation made up of 40 national companies and public officials, the country has opened a space for consolidating business and strategic alliances in the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which is taking place these days in Barcelona.

One of these agreements is the one that was concluded with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), specialized organization in telecommunications of the United Nations (UN), in order to structure the auction 5G in the country and have technical support for the health sector information system.

(More: Nokia changes its image so that it is not associated with the cell phone business).

According to the ICT Minister, Sandra Milena Urrutia, “ITU’s experience in spectrum management and rural connectivity will be key to consolidating the goal of connecting 85% of the country”.

“From a technical point of view, the country is prepared. We have ready the bands where 5G is going to be tendered, at the regulatory level the outlook is clear, from the point of view of the ICT Ministry, the regulatory framework is ready to enable this technology, but what we need is to structure the process as such of the auction. We already have the technical team and the legal team, but we need the team that structures the auction mechanism as such. The ITU will give us that support”, pointed out the Minister in an interview with Portafolio in Barcelona.

(Also read: The Mobile World Congress 2023 started in Barcelona).

Likewise, the head of the ICT portfolio stated that The spectrum auction for 5G is scheduled to be held in the third quarter of this year.

“We are complying with the schedule, in March we will be structuring the team, in the second quarter we will write the terms of reference and by the third quarter we will have the auction. We have been working jointly with all the players in the industry to bring connectivity to all regions of the country”, commented Sandra Urrutia.

(We recommend: The iPhone 14 arrived in the country: how many would be sold in the first months).

Facing the challenges facing the country in terms of connectivity, the ICT minister stated that the goal for the coming years is to have 85% of the country connected.

“We know that work must be accelerated with 5G, but we cannot leave aside the program that the Government has, which is the democratization of ICT, which is nothing more than generating opportunities”, added the official.

Faced with the possibility of a new auction, the operators have repeatedly stated that prices are one of the points that must be evaluated, since Colombia has the highest cost at the regional level. Also, the ICT Minister pointed out that currently “all the necessary points are being analyzed” and that a price for the participants has not yet been defined.

“The National Spectrum Agency (ANE) is already in charge of evaluating this spectrum and reviewing that it actually corresponds to the current economic situation, among other factors that are relevant in the process.”, he highlighted

(You may be interested in: The trends in the ICT sector that are already taking place in the country).

One of the main topics during the MWC has been 5G technology. According to experts, it is increasingly a reality than a promise. It is estimated that these networks will serve a third of the world’s population by 2025.

During the Congress, it was said that 5G is a transversal element, since it is related to the health sector, the automotive industry, aviation, industry, even video games. For experts, this technology allows a device to respond to user movements with unprecedented immediacy.

BRIEFCASE