Colombia’s telecommunications regulator has ordered incumbent operators Claro, Tigo and Movistar to grant Avantel access to and use of the essential facility of National Automatic Roaming.

In a statement, Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) said it will grant them  one calendar month to implement this measure. As a result, Avantel will have coverage for the provision of voice, text messages (SMS) and internet access to users in areas where it has not deployed its 4G network, using the infrastructure of the other three operators.

This measure was taken in response to the requests made by Avantel to the CRC in December 2013, in which it pointed out that it requested access to this service nationwide from Comcel, Tigo and Movistar in late August 2013, but had no response.