The ICT Minister, Sandra Milena Urrutia, during the political control debate cited by Commission VI of the House of Representatives, reported that “98% of the 7,468 digital centers run by the firm Comcel (Claro Colombia) are already installed and 64% are in operation”.
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“Digital Centers are not the same as what happened with Populated Centers. The debate that we are going to give now, the discussion that we must face, is about how to move forward with this project that, for me, is not lost. Populated Centers was an incident that has already happened and that has some actors and some legal actions, ”explained Urrutia.
The minister clarified that the project is divided into two regions. Region A with digital centers in 534 municipalities run by Comunicación Celular SA – Comcel SA and Region B, with connectivity points in 567 municipalities.
Precisely, region B was assigned to the Unión Temporal Centros Poblados and in May of this year, after the declaration of expiration and liquidation of the contract, it was awarded to the Unión Temporal Colombia Conecta ETB – Skynet which, to date, rIt reports 1,557 digital centers operating and in the audit review process.
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“The installation phase for Comcel began on February 2, 2021, in the case of ETB, it began on June 1, 2022; what we have of this contract is a very short time and all the phases must be fulfilled”, said the minister.
On the other hand, the president of the Sixth Commission of the Chamber, Jaime Raúl Salamanca, pointed out “this is an administration that has had to assume a quite complicated debate on something that was already underway. This is a process that was structured in the Duque government, not in Gustavo Petro’s, there are many valid criticisms, unfortunately it was structured like this and it is up to this Ministry to comply with those contracts and find a way for things to be done and done right”.
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