Four firms have submitted bid proposals for Colombia’s National Fibre Optic Project. Colombia’s ICT Ministry announced yesterday that it had received bids from Telmex Colombia, Connectivity For All (a joint venture of ZTE Corporation Colombia, Media Commerce Partners, Anditel and Exicom), the Colombian Optical Fibre Company (a joint venture between Total Play and TV Azteca) and a joint venture between Telefonica Moviles and Colombia Telecomunicaciones. The winning bid will be announced on 4 November.
The project is a public-private partnership, allocated COP415.8 billion (USD215 million) by the government with the aim of increasing the number of internet connections in the country to 8.8 million by 2014. Expected to take 30 months, the ICT Ministry claims the fibre-optic backbone will increase the proportion of the population with broadband access to 90%, increasing the number of municipalities with connectivity from 325 to 700.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, at the end of June 2011 Colombia had 2.85 million broadband subscribers.