Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Ministerio de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones, MinTIC) has revealed plans to issue a public consultation relating to spectrum caps, as it seeks to further the country’s 5G ambitions. In comments reported by BN Americas, telecoms minister Carmen Ligia Valderrama told delegates attending the Andicom 2021 event that the watchdog is considering increasing spectrum caps below 3GHz and introducing a new spectrum cap for frequencies between 3GHz and 6GHz.
MinTIC is expected to raise the cap for low bands (698MHz-960MHz) to 50MHz, establish a 95MHz cap in medium bands (1710MHz-2690MHz) and apply an 80MHz cap for upper-medium bands (3300MHz-3700MHz). All 400MHz in the 3.5GHz band could be made available for 5G services.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, on 29 December 2017 MinTIC raised the cap covering the sub-1GHz low bands (689MHz to 960MHz) from 30MHz to 45MHz per operator, while simultaneously increasing the spectrum cap for 1710MHz to 2690MHz spectrum from 85MHz to 90MHz.