Ola winner to be announced tomorrow

State-owned Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá SA (ETB) and public utility Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) are expected to announce the winner of a tender for a 50% plus one share stake in their Colombian wireless joint venture Ola tomorrow. Ola, Colombia’s third-largest mobile telephone operator with 2.5 million subscribers at mid-2006, has spent just over USD650 million building out its infrastructure since it began operations in November 2003. Three firms are shortlisted from nine initial expressions of interest: Irish-owned Digicel, Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular (MIC) and Chile’s Entel.