The Swedish company Ericsson, together with the Swedish Embassy in Colombia, held the first ‘Imagine Live’ event in the country, where se discussed topics such as 5G and connectivity.
The opening panel entitled ‘challenges and opportunities in Colombia for 5G technology’ was made up of the presidential adviser for Digital Transformation, Saúl Kattan Cohen; the director of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), Paola Bonilla; Ericsson’s country manager, Andrés Quintero; and the vice president of Digital Transformation of Andi, Santiago Pinzón.
(Read: ‘Phygital’, the trend that the world’s banks are joining).
Facing the challenges that the country will have to face in the medium and short term, Kattan specified that connectivity is one of the main points on the agenda of the National Government and that they have also set themselves the goal of connecting 85% of the country in the coming years.
“We have a great challenge in terms of connectivity. Today Colombia has only 50% of the population connected, which means that there is a lot of work ahead to connect the remaining 50%, which is in rural areas. Now, if we compare Colombia with other countries in the region, we are far below. Undoubtedly, this must be an effort by all, the public sector and the private sector”, commented Kattan in the middle of his intervention.
Regarding 5G technology, the presidential adviser pointed out that they have been coordinating from the Government to that in the first half of 2023 the auction of the spectrum can be completed. He also added that they are still studying spectrum prices.
“We continue with the task of studying spectrum prices, we have been analyzing what is going to be done, how it is structured in the best way, the idea is to help make this a reality, as long as there is a commitment from the operators to connect the country ( …) Also, for the first time we have to make a comprehensive plan, we cannot have 5G isolated, we have to make a plan to connect”, added Kattan.
In her turn, Paola Bonilla, director of the CRC, stated that the regulatory body has been carrying out a series of studies on the regulatory conditions of 5G, migration of these new technologies, and research focused on digitization processes.
“From the CRC we know that we must continue to contribute to the competent regulatory processes, to that end we have been advancing in research that contributes to this objective, which is to bring connectivity to the most remote areas of Colombia,” Bonilla commented.
On the business side, Andrés Quintero, country manager of Ericsson, pHe specified that there is still a lot of work to be done in the country in terms of connectivityand that the commitment of the private sector will be “key to move forward”.
(Also: Tigo announced that it has turned off its 2G network in Colombia).
“Ericsson’s commitment is to help strengthen that connectivity in the country and through technology. I reiterate our commitment is to continue with research and development”Quintero said.
For his part, Santiago Pinzón, vice president of Digital Transformation at Andi, added that the private sector is committed to continuing to advance in digitization and 5G technology.
“The operators are committed, the private sector is committed, here the great challenge that they have in terms of digitization is the change of mentality. Likewise, another challenge is to prepare the talent that is required”, he concluded.
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