Main article: Telefonia in Colombia until the 1990s was in charge of telephony completely the state through various municipal and national telecom company. In 1994 began to operate mobile phone networks through six companies divided into three commercial loan areas of coverage. finance In each catchment area and a private company operated a joint venture (private unsecured loan and sba loan public capital, with the participation of fixed telephone companies). Soon these companies financing began to merge commercial business loans with private capital inflows to form two companies with national coverage: Comcel (controlled by Americatel) and Telefonica (under the brand Movistar). The telecommunications deregulation also allowed local companies such as Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB) and Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EE.PP.M.) could provide long distance services and international brands through its 007 World and Orbitel, as well as Telecom and private equity EE.PP.M.