Telefonica Colombia seeks €100m loan

The Colombian unit of Spain's telecom giant Telefonica asked the European Investment Bank, or EIB, to lend it €100 million to expand its mobile network, a Dow Jones report said.

Telefonica Moviles Colombia SA, the local mobile phone unit of Telefonica, would use the proceeds of the loan to finance the expansion of its GSM, or global system for mobile communications, network and to implement the third generation (3G) cellphone Universal Mobile Telecommunications System technology in Colombia, the Dow Jones report added.

The loan will finance parts of the company's needs in 2008 and 2009, Telefonica Moviles also said.

Telefonica Moviles Colombia in 2006 borrowed €100 million from the EIB to expand its network.

Telefonica is the second-biggest operator in Colombia with 8.75 million lines at the end of the first quarter of the year.