© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Flags flutter on the facade of the Colombian Ministry of Info and Communications Applied sciences constructing in Bogota, Colombia, November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Luis Jaime Acosta/File picture
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BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia picked 4 telecommunications companies as winners of a fifth-generation (5G) knowledge providers public sale on Wednesday in a bid to draw funding and be part of regional friends like Argentina and Mexico, the place 5G is already obtainable.
Claro, Telecall Colombia S.A.S., WOM and Union Temporal Colombia Movil-Telefonica, a partnership between the operators of Movistar and Tigo, gained concessions up for grabs within the public sale, the communications ministry mentioned in a press release.
The ministry added that the public sale will elevate greater than 1.5 trillion pesos ($381 million), coming in under a previous authorities estimate that the South American nation’s first-ever 5G public sale would elevate about $500 million.
“Historic! 5G is a reality for Colombians,” mentioned Mauricio Lizcano, the knowledge expertise and communications minister, in a publish on X, including that the roll-out would start subsequent February.
Funding in Colombia’s 5G over the subsequent decade ought to now attain some 28 trillion pesos (round $7.11 billion), mentioned Lizcano.
The frequencies up for public sale included 700 megahertz (MHz), 1,900 MHz, 2,500 MHz and three,500 MHz, in addition to others within the prolonged AWS band of frequencies, which vary from 1,700 MHz to 2,100 MHz.
Colombia closed 2022 with some 80 million cellular subscribers, largely on contracts with America Movil (NYSE:)’s Claro.
Different main operators embrace Colombia Telecomunicaciones, a neighborhood unit of Spain’s Telefonica (NYSE:), Colombia Movil’s Tigo and WOM, owned by Icelandic billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson.
Brazil’s Telecall can be set to enter the Colombian market by Wednesday’s public sale.
($1 = 3,938.5000 Colombian pesos)