How Colombia plans to boost digital connectivity

With the design of a new roadmap and the collaboration of development bank IDB, the Colombian government is focusing on improving connectivity, especially in rural areas.

Last week, the ICT ministry (Mintic) announced a strategy to connect 85% of the country in a four-year period. The plan will impact 1,122 municipalities in 32 departments.

"We found that only 28.9% of the inhabitants of the countryside have connectivity. It is something that we cannot allow because for the government access to ICT is a right, not a privilege," said minister Sandra Milena Urrutia in a press release.

While in urban areas 73% of the population use the internet, in rural zones the figure barely exceeds 50%, according to a survey by statistics agency DANE.

According to the latest data from regulator CRC, as of the second quarter of 2022, fixed internet accesses reached 8.56mn, up 3.2% from a year earlier.

CRC said that as of September 2022, 4G connections represented 84.1% of total mobile internet accesses, reaching 32.9mn and 16.3% more than the same month of the previous year.

STRATEGY

At the national level, the government will propose that mobile operators focus coverage efforts on disconnected zones, and that in areas of medium or high coverage they look to improve transmission and modernize the network.

Telefónica told BNamericas that it is in talks with the Colombian government to promote a project similar to Internet for All (IPT) in Peru.

As a rural mobile operator, IPT installs telecommunications infrastructure and offers the network under a wholesale model. In the case of Colombia, Spanish-owned Telefónica has finished preparing the business case and already has investors interested in moving forward with the project.

The government proposes to promote ISPs and community networks where there is a big digital divide, improve the fiber optic network and provide connectivity to departments that are lagging behind such as Amazonas, Guainía, Vaupés, Vichada and the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina archipelago.

As part of the connectivity strategy, Colombia will also promote digital terrestrial television and public media.

COLLABORATION WITH IDB

Mintic and IDB opened a call for a consultancy to design the initial stage of the digital connectivity plan for the social and productive transformation of Colombia.

The first stage of the plan will be aimed at bringing internet to homes, educational centers, health centers, public entities and strategic points. The consultation must include a diagnosis of the infrastructure needs of the disconnected areas of the country, as well as a mapping of the digital skills that must be strengthened in the regions.

IDB has a budget of US$300,000 for the project, of which US$200,000 will be used to finance the identification of infrastructure needs in disconnected areas and US$75,000 for the identification of digital skills.