Colombia Concludes 5G Spectrum Auction, Raising USD 1.37 Billion

Colombia Concludes 5G Spectrum Auction, Secures USD 1.37 Billion
Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Ministerio de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones, MinTIC) has announced the conclusion of its 5G spectrum auction after nine rounds of bidding. The auction, held on December 20 and lasting five hours, raised approximately USD 1.37 billion for the 5G band.

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Spectrum Allocation

In the first band of the auction, each operator was allocated an 80 MHz block in the 3,500 MHz (3.5 GHz) band upon winning the bid. The winning spectrum for the operators is as follows:

  • Union Temporal Colombia Movil-Telefonica acquired the first block for a value of USD 318.306 million.
  • WOM was awarded the second block for a value of USD 318.340 million.
  • The third block was awarded to the Brazilian company Telecall, a new operator, for a value of USD 318.333 million.
  • Claro Colombia was awarded the last block for a value of USD 411.384 million.

In the auction for the remaining bands, Claro Colombia bid USD 157.057 million for block 2 of the 2,500 MHz band suitable for 4G technology, with no other bidders for this spectrum.

“Of the four blocks auctioned, there was a 29.2 percent increase in the reservation price, one more example of the confidence that this process had. Among the high, medium and low bands, 82.5 percent of the total spectrum that was available was allocated, highlighting that the spectrum to launch 5G was acquired in its entirety. On February 1, 2024, the four operators will begin the deployment of the technology, after they carry out technical tests in January,” emphasised the Minister of ICT.