Video: Claro’s move to Wom at its launch event in Colombia

Wom officially arrived in Colombia to compete with large mobile telephony such as Claro, Movistar and Tigo. On Thursday night the company decided to hold a launch event at the Salitre Mágico park, in Bogotá.

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In the middle of the event Chris Bannister, CEO of Wom Colombia, sent direct messages against the three major operators in the country, which he classified as “Cry babies with all their tantrums when they see a new competitor arrive”.

But the night didn’t end with Bannister’s taunts. The spectators who attended the event had to remain in their cars due to biosecurity protocols, and recorded the unexpected greeting that Claro sent.

In a video that circulates on social networks it can be seen that while Wom activates the fireworks, Claro arrived with several drones to put his signature in the sky, a move that few expected to see.

Video wasn’t the only trend that marked the launch of Wom, so did the unrest that aroused among environmentalists the use of gunpowder in one place, which is close to a wetland where hundreds of species live.

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Animal councilor Andrea Padilla criticized the company for starring in these types of acts. “With our purchasing decisions we should reject disrespectful and irresponsible behavior from companies. The ostentation of #womcolombia through explosions of gunpowder next to the wetland, where 106 species of birds live, could claim and disrupt lives #MalWom“, wrote.

This is the mobile phone market in Colombia

This Thursday, Wom, a new mobile phone operator that seeks to become the fourth leader in the telecommunications sector in the country, arrived on the Colombian market, which is currently led by Claro, Movistar and Tigo.

Wom belongs to the investment fund Novator Partners, with a presence in Iceland, Poland and Chile, which last year participated in the auction of the 700 MHz, 1,900 MHz and 2,500 MHz spectrum, and also won the majority stake in the mobile phone operator, Avantel.

In the presentation of the new operator, Chris Bannister, director of WOM in Colombia, stated that in Over the next four to five years, the company plans to invest close to one billion dollars with the objective of installing 8 thousand new antennas in 675 locations in the country.

The company emphasized that, with their arrival in the country, they hope to expand the telecommunications market in Colombia, as they did in Chile in 2015, where, according to the company, they already have a 23% market share. .

“The mobile telephony sector in Colombia is static, the concentration of the mobile market has delayed key investments for the country’s development. Colombia has one of the highest prices per GB in the region. The country needs a fourth operator to promote change and improve access to connectivity for all Colombians“Bannister said at the launch, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.

In fact, in Colombia, in the last year there has been a controversy because the operators that are the competence of Claro, denounced that the company has dominance in the country’s telecommunications market, so that, according to them, the company would be closing the competitiveness margin in the sector.

A study carried out by the firm Analysys Mason, hired by Tigo Colombia, revealed that Claro obtains $ 59 pesos of every $ 100 that users pay for voice and data nationwideTherefore, the remaining $ 46 must be distributed by the other companies, Dinero magazine reported.

“Claro’s competitors only seek unjustified regulatory benefits avoiding investing and competing freely. They unduly pressure the Government to make decisions that do not benefit Colombia or users. Conversely, Claro considers that the market is not distributed or distributed, it is gained or lost product of the competition and the preference of the users“Said Claro in his defense, through a statement.

Regarding investments, the Superintendency of Companies revealed that, For 2019, Claro only invested 18% of its total income, which would classify it as the operator with the lowest investments. De in accordance with the latest quarterly report of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (Mintic), published in September this year, Claro is the mobile service provider that leads the country, with 31.2 million lines in Colombia.

In the same report, the Mintic disclosed that The other companies that compete for the telecommunications market in Colombia are Movistar, which has 15.9 million lines, and Tigo, with 11.8 million lines in the country. Operators Virgin and Avantel rank fourth and fifth, with 3 million and 2.3 million lines, respectively.

Regarding earnings, the Mintic reported that, in the first quarter of 2020, Claro earned 376.1 billion from voice traffic; Movistar raised 152,700 million pesos, Tigo received 128,700 million and Avantel 20.9 billion pesos.

Thus, with the highest number of earnings and available lines from Claro in Colombia, and two other operators leading telecommunications, Bannister considers that “Colombians do not have the telecommunications service they deserve, that is what we want to change in the coming years”, And therefore, his strategy on his arrival in Colombia will be improve the prices of mobile plans; that is, the new competitor maintains, give more to the user for a lower price.