Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (Ministerio de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones, MinTIC) has confirmed that all four would-be bidders have been approved to participate in this month’s multi-band spectrum auction. The authorised bidders are as follows: Claro Colombia; Partners Telecom Colombia (WOM);Temporal Colombia Movil-Telefonica (a network-sharing JV between Tigo and Movistar); and Sociedad Futura Telecall Colombia.

Surprise bidder Sociedad Futura Telecall Colombia is understood to be an affiliate of Rio de Janeiro-based B2B operator Telexperts Telecomunicacoes (Telecall). The Brazilian Telecall, which operates fibre-optic backbone networks in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, launched MVNO services in 2019 and went on to deploy an MVNA platform, which has supported the launches of more than 30 virtual operators.

The auction, which will comprise spectrum in the 700MHz, 1900MHz, Extended AWS, 2500MHz and 3500MHz bands, will commence on 20 December.