Colombia issues new regulations for fixed internet, mobile services

Colombia's communications watchdog CRC has published two new regulations related to fixed internet services and mobile portability, while national spectrum agency ANE also revealed the future regulation for electromagnetic fields.

The CRC identified 170 municipalities in the country with market failings associated with the carrier service, through which fixed internet data is transmitted between municipalities.

In a second phase of the project, the CRC plans to analyze the adoption of regulatory measures to mitigate and correct the competitive problems identified.

The regulator also made some changes to the mobile portability process, such as eliminating the obligation to be up to date with payments of services to carry out porting. 

Likewise, the text of the message that the user will receive when carrying out the procedure was modified in order to avoid fraud due to identity theft.

To port prepaid lines, there is now an obligation to validate the identity of the user by the operator.

ANE also published the draft resolution that establishes individuals' exposure limits to electromagnetic fields.

It also regulated the conditions that radio stations must meet and issued provisions related to the deployment of radio communication antennas. The changes will be available for comment here until July 19.

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Bolivia's transport and telecommunications regulator ATT opened pre-registration for the allocation of frequencies in the 5GHz band for the provision of fixed internet access.

Interested parties may request spectrum with a bandwidth of no more than 50MHz in the frequency range of 5150MHz-5250MHz or 5350MHz-5460MHz.

The deadline for pre-registration is July 5.

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Peru's congress approved the amended text of bill 2151 that increases fines for operating companies that commit infringements.

The bill states that a minor infringement will entail a maximum fine of 100 UIT tax units (495,000 soles or US$135,000), while a serious offense will carry a maximum fine of 500 UIT and a very serious offense will be subject to fines of up to 1,000 UIT, local daily La República reported.

The bill was backed by telecoms regulator Osiptel.

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Colombian trade regulator SIC fined Claro 731mn pesos (US$175,000) for issuing misleading advertising in connection with a prepaid SIM card offer.

The SIC also launched an administrative investigation against Claro and Movistar for rejecting number portability requests, in addition to failing to send the documents required by regulations to the database administrator to support the rejections.

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Venezuelan regulator Conatel began an administrative procedure against Netlife Telecom for having installed, operated and provided telecommunications services without having the corresponding authorization.