Colombia – New Regulations Requiring Letter of No Action (LONA)

Colombia’s Comisión de Regulación de Comunicaciones (CRC) recently advised that mobile terminal devices with data for which an LONA (Letter of No Action) has already been obtained, will be exempt from Type Approval under the new Resolución 5031, 2016 and can continue to be imported into Colombia with no further action. This new regulation goes into effect on January 7, 2017, and the CRC has advised manufacturers to obtain an LONA for any mobile terminal devices with data (current or future products) ahead of the implementation of the new regulation; thereby removing the requirement of Type Approval. If an LONA is not obtained prior to January 7, 2017, such devices will require Type Approval under the new regulation. It should be noted that mobile terminal devices with voice function still require formal Type Approval under current Resolución 4507, 2014 and will continue to do so under the new Resolución 5031, 2016.