Computer to Replace Live Operators For Directory Information
Calling the 113 directory information service will take a more impersonal attitude next week as the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) - state monopoly on telecommunications - replaces live operators with a computer.

ICE says that the change will allow the instution to offer a more efficient and better service than it is now offering with the use of live operators taking calls.

Jorge Sánchez,, Director of Customer Service at ICE, explained the with the new system a customer calling directory information will only have to say the name of the person or company they are looking for and the computer does the rest. However, in cases where the computer cannot understand the request, the call will be trasnferred to a live operator.

The new system will allow ICE to offer complete directory information service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. During weekends, holidays and evening hours, ICE has always reduced the number of operators meaning longer waiting for the information sought.

According to Sánchez, the current system is obsolete, being installed in 1989. The new system was installed by Unysis at a cost of us$18 millin dollars that will also be used to service customers calling 115, IcE's customer service for installation of new service, 119 to reporting damage to a telephone line, 189 for pager messaging and 137 to report missing persons.

The new system will not include 193, the cellular service.

For most of 2005 and through 2006, 113 directory information calls are free of charge since there no printed telephone directory is available due to contractual difficulties ICE had with Verizon, who published the telephone directories in Costa Rica for years.