Management 2022
5.7. Regulatory Management
Spectrum
In 2022 the ICT Ministry modified the maximum
spectrum limits per Telecommunications Networks and
Services provider for use in land mobile services
(IMT) where the limits were set at 50MHz for the lower
bands (below 1GHz), 100 MHz for the mid bands (between
1 GHz and below 3GHz) and 100 MHz for the upper
midbands (between 3 GHz and 6 GHz).
On June 17, Resolution 2143 of the Ministry of ICT resolved the appeal for the renewal of the 1,900 MHz Spectrum permit for the company. The total value of the economic consideration for the access, use and exploration of the radio spectrum was COP $555 billion.
On the other side, in the month of December, the ICT
Ministry published a resolution inviting to express
the interest to participate in the Auction Process for
the granting of authorizations for the use of spectrum
in 5G and other remaining bands, with the following
amounts of spectrum available: up to 10 MHz in the 700
MHz band; up to 10 MHz in the 1900 MHz band; up to 30
MHz in the 2500 MHz band; up to 400 MHz in the 3500
MHz band; and up to 2.8 GHz in the 26 GHz band. Nine
participants sent their manifestation, including
Telefónica Movistar.
Quality
In July 2022, the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) issued Resolution 6890, adjusting the quality regime, largely in response to requests made through the Asomóvil association. The main changes include:
1. The new crowdsourcing methodology to measure the quality of mobile data service based on information from customers’ handsets, removing the use of probes, which are outdated and costly, as of April 1, 2023. It is mandatory to send an informative report for municipalities with less than 4,000 4G technology lines. For the company, the mandatory use of probes was removed immediately, as the CRC selected an initiative as part of its Regulatory Sandbox exercise.
2. That the reporting of 3G mobile data indicators of latency, jitter, packet loss, and throughput, will be done as informative. Compliance target values are eliminated.
3. Modification of the number of municipalities exempted from compliance with quality indicators to 320.
4. The elimination of several indicator reports (fixed voice, Pay TV, closed TV transmission quality, 2G, 3G and 4G core network elements) and the expanded reporting of service impairment.
Interconnection
On February 11, the Regulatory Commission issued Resolution 6522, which adjusts the general interconnection rules. Among other provisions, it is mandatory to offer signaling used within the network of each operator, and in case of disagreement, the SIP protocol prevails. Companies that provide VoLTE (multimedia communication) service to their users must allow VoLTE interconnection to third parties that request it, and also include in the Basic Interconnection Offer at least one interconnection node with these capabilities. This measure is very convenient for technological modernization and the future reduction of operating costs.
The company complied with resolution CRC 5967 of the year 2020 in relation to the amendment of the National Numbering Plan within the established deadlines. This measure removed the national long distance prefixes and establishes all national fixed numbering with the prefix 60. In the stage known as establishment, from December 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022, if the user dialed in the previous way, the companies were required to include a telephone recording informing of the changes. For incoming international calls, the coexistence was stipulated from September 1, 2021, to January 31, 2022, and the final adjustment, from February 1 to May 30, 2022..
On the other hand, with Resolution CRC 7007 of December 2022, the Commission established a new adjustment in the pricing conditions for interconnection in mobile networks and the prices of National Automatic Roaming, and adjusted the rules for prices to be charged to Mobile Virtual Network Operators. It is noted that it adopts the Bill and Keep (B&K) scheme as of the year 2025. It is expected that the decision will benefit the users by reducing and in some cases removing the wholesale interconnection costs, since the final prices were reduced more slowly than the initial proposal.
Competition
(GRI Contenido 206-1)
There are no legal actions pending or completed during this period with respect to unfair competition o violations to the legislation on monopolistic practices or free competition.
In the lawsuit decided by the Superior Court of Bogotá, in which the plaintiff was Colombia Telecomunicaciones S.A. ESP BIC and the defendant was Avantel SAS, the case concluded on December 6, 2022, without a conviction for Avantel.