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ICE Gets Approval for Ericsson Contract To
Install 600.000 New GSM Cellular Lines
►
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►
Mastermind of Internet fraud, Gets 10
years in U.S. jail
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Excess Dollars Cause Inflation
►
Police Confiscated $400,000
►
Improved Controls on Water
ICE Gets Approval for Ericsson Contract To
Install 600.000 New GSM Cellular Lines
The Contraloría General de la
República (Comptroller's office) said yes to ICE, giving it the green
light to complete it's deal with the Ericsson company to install 600.000
new GSM cellular lines at a cost of us$130 million dollars.
Ericsson is one of the firms that is being investigated for
irregularities in contract awards and the contract that was supposed to
be completed last year was stalled as the Contraloría failed to give
it's approval.
Yesterday's decision means that ICE - the Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad - can begin to market the new lines as soon as the end of
this year.
To save face, the Contraloría, placed a condition on the approval, that
ICE have the rates and marketing plan in place, which Claudio Bermúdez,
a manager at ICE, assures that the plan is already in place.
At the moment, ICE has no cellular lines available. Of the more than
500.000 TDMA lines and 400.000 GSM lines provided by Alcatel, customers
cannot walk into an ICE office and get connected. The Ericsson contract,
that would have been available last December, was supposed to have
avoided the current situation.
One interesting note, which is not being discussed openly at ICE, is
that the new service will not make available pre-paid GSM SIM cards like
most other countries. Pre-paid SIM cards would mean that customers could
buy cellular service at a fixed amount without the need to enter into a
contract with the provider.
Travelers from Europe are taken aback when they find that their cellular
telephone will not work in Costa Rica, and they cannot purchase the
service because they don't meet ICE's requirements of residency.
Visitors to Costa Rica who want to have cellular service need to rent a
service from several companies that rent a phone and SIM card for a
specified period, with costs ranging from all inclusive and low
international calling rates to almost us$1 per minute on local calls.
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