Mobile coverage
Mobile telephony coverage in Colombia depends on the operator that people have. Operators such as Avantel has coverage focused on the large cities of the country, which does not reach rural areas. It covers at least the four main cities, Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla and others like Pereira and Valledupar, but it does not reach the plains or the South of the country. ETB does not cover the southern zone of Colombia. The same happens with Móvil Éxito, Movistar and Tigo, which have very poor coverage in the South of the country and in the plains area, but still have more nationwide coverage than operators such as Virgin Mobile and Uff Mobile. Claro, the most used operator, is the one with the most coverage throughout the country. Unlike the other operators, it covers several areas of the Amazon and the eastern plains and in the other regions manages to have good rural coverage with 2G technology.
The region of the Colombian Orinoquía is made up of the departments of Arauca, Casanare, Meta and Vichada that together have around 1,600,000 inhabitants, of near 50 million that Colombia has. The coverage of the operators that arrive in this region is concentrated in the capitals of each department and Claro in some rural areas. In addition, Vichada is one of the departments with the higher concentration of indigenous populations in the country, and the limited coverage in this area excludes the Guahibo, Sicuani, Piaroa, Piapoco, Cubeo, Puinave, Amorua and Saliva indigenous communities.
The South of the country, its Amazon region, is made up of the departments of Amazonas, Guainía, Putumayo, Caquetá, Guaviare and Vaupés. In the Amazon there are around 960,000 inhabitants, which represent 2.3 percent of the Colombian population. The coverage of Claro, the largest one in the country, reaches Leticia and other areas, but many operators do not even cover the capitals of this region, leaving out of coverage indigenous groups amounting to 9 percent of the Amazonian population (86,417 inhabitants); most of the concentrated in Putumayo and Amazonas.
The Ministry of Telecommunications raises several projects to reduce the digital divide, including future mobile coverage for the whole country. Among these projects are the National Fiber Optic Project, which seeks to connect more and more municipalities, and the Facilitation Project for the Deployment of Telecommunications Infrastructure, which seeks to "find mechanisms through public policy and/or regulations that allow the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure in urban, regional or national networks."