Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Ministerio de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones, MinTIC) has confirmed that nine companies have submitted expressions of interest (EoI) in using the extended AWS band, after staging a brief consultation last month. The interested parties include mobile incumbents Colombia Movil (Tigo), Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Movistar), Comunicacion Celular (Claro), Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB) and Partners Telecom Colombia (WOM), alongside Speednet, Ingenieria e Infraestructura de Colombia, Media Commerce Partners and Metronet Colombia.
The extended AWS band spectrum comprises a 2×25MHz block in the 1755MHz-1780MHz/2155MHz-2180MHz range. The planned distribution of the spectrum forms part of the government’s 5G strategy.