|
 A recent study by Colombia's telecom regulator looks at regulatory options for extending broadband internet penetration in the country as a step towards the revision of the technical and
economic rules related with the growth of broadband access.
The paper, Estudio de alternativas regulatorias para el desarrollo de la banda ancha en Colombia (Study of regulatory options for broadband development in Colombia), in Spanish only, is available for download from the website of the Comisión de Regulación de Telecomunicaciones de Colombia (CRT, Colombia's telecom regulation commission).
The CRT and the Ministry of Communications of Colombia conducted previous studies on Colombia's broadband market as
the government considers that broadband development is relevant to
the national economy and for the enhancement of the quality of life in
the country and has set tarhets of 30% broadband penetration by 2010 and 60% by 2019.
This new study shows that broadband internet access development in Colombia is low compared with other
countries in the region. It also analyzes different mechanisms to
promote competition in order to contribute to achievement of the established goals. The
mechanisms are focused on enhancing competition based on the existing
services (DSL, cable modem) and lowering barriers to competition by analyzing the possibility of unbundling the local loop of existing
networks.
The study indicates that the presence of cable networks in bigger
markets, DSL, and new wireless technologies like WiMAX, will
create the competitive conditions necessary for growth of broadband. Nevertheless, figures for broadband in Colombia today show a
limited amount of DSL access using copper telephony network, which is
currently the best deployed infrastructure in the country. For this reason it is
necessary to establish regulatory mechanisms for the unbundling of the
local loop and to enable resale of existing infrastructure to promote
competition in broadband access.
In order to make comparisons in the region, the study shows that there are no special regulations for ruling broadband Internet access in Latin America. In some cases like Chile, the country with the highest
regional broadband penetration, the influence of cable companies in
market competitiveness resulted in a higher penetration of cable modem services and more
investment made by the telecom companies. This situation did not happen
in Colombia where broadband access tariffs are still high when compared
with other countries of the region, like Argentina where local tariffs
are around half the price of Colombia.
The broadband access penetration in developed countries is analyzed
from two different perspectives, the presence of competition and the
unbundling of the local loop. France, Holland, Sweden, UK, South Korea,
Canada, Finland, Japan and the USA broadband market overviews are
included in the report.
France has one of the highest local loop unbundling rates in Europe and
several commercial "triple-play" offers that include broadband access, digital TV and
telephony. Broadband service competition in France is due to the
existence of cable companies, resale of DSL services, unbundling of the
local loop and the use of wireless networks and satellite when
needed. Holland shows the highest broadband access penetration in
Europe also due to a very competitive market. The cable industry
development is high and there are more than twelve service providers,
unbundling of the local loop is also present. An example of stimulating broadband rollout from Sweden, involved the
development of very high-speed low-cost broadband services using fiber to the home (FFTH)
infrastructure.
Considering these and other international experiences presented in the
study, the report concludes that the most important reasons for a positive evolution of broadband access
services are two, one related with different service offers like DSL and cable modem, the other one based on service reselling and unbundling of the local loop. This study is a step towards the revision of the technical and
economic rules related to the growth of broadband access in Colombia.
A deeper analysis will be done in relevant geographic markets, which
will consider service providers, prices and commercial conditions in
each region. With this information available, CRT will be able to
elaborate new regulations to enhance broadband
access in Colombia.
Download the full report (in Spanish) from the Comisión de Regulación de Telecomunicaciones de Colombia - Estudio de alternativas regulatorias para el desarrollo de la banda ancha en Colombia
|
