BOGOTA (WiMAX Day) by Joachim Bamrud. Colombian authorities and independent experts believe the upcoming WiMAX auction will help to boost broadband penetration in the country, which lags behind most of its neighbours in Internet and PC usage.

“Colombia will be one of the frontrunners of WiMAX in Latin America” predicts Pyramid Research analyst Thomas Abreau.

Colombia already granted national WiMAX licenses to the three long-distance operators Orbitel, EBT and Colombia Telecom in November 2005 and plans to grant regional licenses by early November of this year.

“There are great expectations for WiMAX,” says Cristian Lizcano, an advisor for the Colombian Telecommunications Ministry. “Through this technology, broadband in Colombia can be boosted. It … will help provide sufficient (broadband) supply throughout Colombia.”

Camilo Espinosa, broadband director of telecom operator Avantel, agrees. “Colombia is a country that has a lot to catch up on in terms of broadband,” he said. Avantel is one of 161 companies that have submitted bids for one or more licenses in 32 regions in Colombia. It plans to use any WiMAX license it wins to target the enterprise market, especially ISPs.

“We think this is a great opportunity to offer advanced technology services like WiMAX,” Espinosa says. “We are betting on a convergence between voice and data.”

Colombia’s Telecommunications Ministry is currently evaluating the bids it received in August and plans to publicly release its evaluations on each bid on 11th October. According to Lizcano, the evaluations will be available at the Ministry or through its web site for three business days, allowing any bidder to submit their comments, but not any modifications to their original bids. Thereafter the ministry will take another 10 business days to study the new comments before making its decision on the winners, which will be the end of October.

While this may seem complicated, Lizcano added that it “is done to give the whole process as much transparency as possible.” The government will grant two licenses per province. A minimum price for each license was not set, and the government will also consider factors such as planned yearly investment, projected coverage and subscriber capacity in making its selection, Lizcano says.

In addition to Avantel, companies bidding for the WiMAX spectrum include Comcel (Colombia’s largest wireless operator), Telmex Colombia and cable companies like Cablecentro and Cable Union de Occidente.

Of the long-distance carriers previously granted licenses, only Orbitel has launched WiMAX — in the cities of Cali and Bogotà, with plans for further rollouts in other cities.