In response to the public consultation from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinINT) and the National Spectrum Agency (ANE) of Colombia regarding their draft spectrum policy 2020-2024, Colnodo, with the support of APC and Rhizomatica, submitted commentson the draft.
If the plans stay as is, they would be a great milestone for the community networks movement, as the draft policy includes a clause to "define the conditions to implement mechanisms of spectrum sharing, including in IMT bands, for community networks." Most of the spectrum sharing to date has focused on TV white spaces, and extending it to the IMT bands, those used for mobile broadband, and hence being able to reach users' handsets, is a major advance in the advocacy work that Colnodo has been leading in Colombia for this to happen.
In addition to welcoming this clause, the comments submitted call on MinTIC and ANE to define the conditions of this spectrum sharing for community networks, to explore possibilities of direct allocations for social purpose use, as well as promoting open telecoms data and including civil society in their knowledge and innovation management plans.
Read the full submission (in Spanish) here.