Fraud and breach of interconnection rules, irregular obstacles to migrate from mobile operator, manipulation of user information without their consent, among other anti -competitive actions have been accusations that the clear Telco and Wom have been launching each other in recent months in Colombia.And it is that after the entrance of WOM to the land of coffee in April 2021, its casual and aggressive strategy, faithful to its style, consisted of using all the necessary weapons to gain participation in a market dominated by clear with about 50%of users in the mobile phone segment.

Also read: "Wom, the awkward and challenging mobile operator lands in Colombia"

Thus, from the presentation of Wom - which has Chile as the main headquarters - in Colombia a constant struggle with the rest of the operators was already anticipated (Claro, Tigo and Movistar).Proof of this was the message that Chris Bannister, CEO of Wom Colombia, sent to the rest of the operators during the presentation event when qualifying them as “weeping babies with all their tantrums to see that a new competitor arrives”.The cherry of the cake was the deployment of three inflatable babies crying, in clear allusion to these mobile operators.

During the following months, the battle was fought at the level of social networks, but since October 2021 it was exacerbated, especially with clear, although this time in regulatory field.Thus, this month started with the controversy that they continue to drag so far: the interconnection.

On the one hand, Claro said that the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) processed the Ministry of S of Information and Communications (MINTIC) a complaint against WOM for passing calls from National Automatic Roaming (RAN) of Avantel (operator that wasacquired by WOM) to take advantage of lower rates, so the company considered this act as fraud and breach of the established regulations.

On the other hand, Wom denied that administrative investigation has been opened by the relevant authorities for an alleged improper use of the RAN, although he accepted that there was a request for information that would have fully fulfilled.

“The CRC denied the requests that made clear, refusing the reasons why this operator requested the loss of incoming operator for WOM, the disconnection of the RAN and the interconnection, claims that were not accepted by the Commission.Which in turn demonstrates that WOM is compliance with the regulation and the Colombian legal framework, ”said the telecommunications operator through a statement.

Two months later, of course he insisted again with the complaint that Wom takes advantage of Avantel's interconnection to pass his calls and access minor rates.He also added that he manipulates user information without consent for their own benefit.

Wom argued that clearly violates the interconnection regulations, since the CRC ordered him to interconnection to WOM to enable the connection of calls between the users of both companies.

"The effect is so harmful that today more than 50% of the calls made between both companies are affected, seriously impacting users who have seen as an essential public service is degraded," Wom said.

The origin of the alleged breach of the interconnection rules is Avantel, a company that Wom acquired - in addition to electromagnetic spectrum - to land in Colombia.For Claro, WOM is a company other than Avantel.

“CRC has not yet said anything and that is the problem.At the private level WOM has interconnected with the other operators, but not clearly.When Wom Buy Avantel, it already had interconnection with clear then it began to pass traffic and that is where it has precisely argued that only Avantel traffic can happen, not WOM, ”says Alessandro Defilippi, telecommunications expert.

The result of this?The fall of calls that fail to realize.In an interview with the Blu Radio radio station, Juan Pablo Vázquez, director of WOM strategies in Colombia, said that of course the calls that came from the lines recorded in Wom.“On the basis of their own beliefs they are making decisions, they are making justice, mistakenly, in their own hands.Those who are harmed are users, ”he said.

To of course, the one that breaches the legal framework is Wom."We present the corresponding complaints before the CRCC, the Communications Ministry and the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) because the Lords of WOM are passing Avantel traffic through the interconnection we have with them," said Hilda María Pardo, legal vice presidentOf course, according to the magazine Semana.“Each company has its interconnection with the other company.It is like a highway where all communications go.There is a clear highway with Avantel and vice versa, and another of WOM with Claro ... what we began to notice is that the traffic of Avantel interconnection was reduced and the Wom's grew. ”

For now, the resolution is on the Colombian regulator court, which to date has only issued partial resolutions that do not end the controversy.For Defilippi, eventually clear, the incumbent operator will have to give in.“This is unsustainable, of course it is gaining time.The CRC has to give a mandate or define a price.I don't know if the WOM price accepts it or not, but it will be the only solution and in the end of course it will have to allow interconnection, ”he says.

Barriers to migrate

Another chapter of the confrontation between the two Telco opened at the end of 2021. This time, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) initiated an investigation into several complaints that made WOM users willing to migrate to Claro, and who found several irregular obstacles.

For now, the entity made a sheet of charges against Wom, considering that, indeed, the operator would be preventing its users from moving to another company with obstacles that are outside the law.

Beyond the rain of complaints and controversies, what is clear is that WOM's landing in Colombian lands has removed the local mobile phone market, which for years lacked dynamism by traditional operators.In August 2021, WOM, owned by Novator Partners LLP, British Private Capital Investment Firm, announced that in just four months it reached a million users, a milestone that took the rest of the operators much longer to reach.Last December he informed that he would be close to having two million users.

“Probablemente WOM siga escalando y sea uno de los tres grandes operadores colombianos, tampoco hay mucho más. Colombia tiene algunos operadores regionales, pero sí va a compartir un buen porcentaje de market share. Claro, por su lado, suele defender bastante bien sus posiciones dominantes, lo ha demostrado en México con un gigante como AT&T. Definitivamente, el ingreso de WOM le va a pegar. ¿Cuánto market share va a perder? Es imposible saberlo, pero definitivamente sí va haber una afectación”, dice Alessadro Defilippi.

The truth is that the great beneficiary in the midst of this stir is the end user that accesses better rates, more data, greater coverage and cost -free applications.