womhas been working on Colombia as an operator of telephone services in the country, and now seeks to break through in the transformation towards the 5G technology. This after in December 2022, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MinTIC) has made the use of this spectrum available to operators.
According to resolution 4543 of December 21, 2022, the ICT Minhad made available to telecommunications operators in the country the option of showing their interest in obtaining permits for the use of the 5G technology spectrum in Colombia.
This with the purpose of starting the operation and provision of land mobile services, the entity has highlighted the possible opening of the availability of different frequencies ranging from 10 MHz to 2.8 GHz and of which the entity requested interest in 3.5MHz and 26GHz.
5G technology
The radio spectrum It is the necessary resource for the deployment of the infrastructure that supports the provision of various telecommunications services. This technology is crucial to be able to carry out daily activities, among these, watching television, using the cell phone, listening to the radio or making use of the internet service.
Among the other benefits that the new generation of networks brings, we can highlight the access to applications related to the use of emerging technologies such as internet of things, big data and the Artificial intelligence.
Faced with this, the operator Wom sent a letter to present its interest and participate in the auction of this spectrum. And until that moment. 5G technology not only means changes in infrastructure and telecommunications networks, it also allows the development of an entire ecosystem of platforms, services and content through innovation and entrepreneurship.
5G technology is crucial to be able to carry out daily activities, including watching television, using the cell phone, listening to the radio or using the internet service.
Number portability in Colombia
On the other hand, the entity has expressed its disagreement with the portability of the different services, since they ensure that practices have been identified against the regulations that prevent users from exercising this right, such as the creation of vouchers of loyalty and gift balances that represent false debts to the users.
Number portability is the possibility of the user to keep his telephone number without deterioration of quality and reliability, in the event that he changes his telephone number. Telecommunications Network and Services Provider. In which there is a change request by the user and an acceptance or rejection by the provider.
“Taking into account that the actions deployed by large operators affect both consumers and small competitors, an evident situation of acts of unfair competition is generated, requiring the intervention and participation of the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) and the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) in the discussion and regulatory improvement”, they indicated from Wom.
As mentioned, these practices are considered anti-competitive and violate the right to free choice of Colombians and perform number portability. And this is because several companies in the sector have been penalized for these practices.
4 million applications rejected
In these sanctions, the Claro company is added, because as part of its commercial strategy a distortion of figures was generated from the Mobile Number Portability through fictitious portations. The SIC verified the existence, which begins with the activation of prepaid lines in Movistar.
Likewise, the SIC sanctioned the mobile service operators: Claro, Movistar, Tigo, ETB, Virgin Mobile, Móvil Éxito, Wom and Avantel for violation of the Number Portability Regime. These sanctions were given for rejecting portability without providing sufficient evidence in which they amounted to a total of $6,495,000,000.
Finally, according to data provided in the latest CRC report, 39.4 million portability operations have been registered in Colombia since this process was implemented. According to figures, in 2022 there were close to 13 million portation requests in the country, of which 8.8 million were completed and 4.1 million were rejected (32%), affecting a large number of Colombians who tried to change their identity last year. unsuccessful operator.