Following our recent listing of countries delaying spectrum auctions during the coronavirus, news has reached us of an actual rollout going ahead in Colombia, despite the pandemic.
Tigo Colombia has started to deploy the 700MHz spectrum it won in the much-delayed Colombian multi-band spectrum auction that finally took place in late December 2019. According to local press reports the deployment has begun in Bogota, Medellin and Barranquilla.
The president of Tigo Colombia, Marcelo Cataldo, has apparently acknowledged that this is a difficult time to undertake a rollout but that the company had decided to go ahead and had started the activation of antennas in the 700MHz band.
The first few sites have already been switched on. In the early phase of rollout around 200 municipalities are due to be covered. Under its rollout obligations, Tigo is due to cover at least 1,630 new locations in the medium term. The operator is expected to invest a total of around $750 million on the rollout.
Claro, a subsidiary of America Movil, Tigo Millicom and Novator Partners were the winners of bandwidth during the recent spectrum auction, although Novator attempted to revoke its bid after massively overbidding on 2500MHz spectrum. Movistar, a subsidiary of Telefonica of Spain, did not win any spectrum.