ICE Decides To Buy New GSM Network Rather Than Expand Existing
The decision has been made and not one that will make many people happy: the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) - the state monopoly on telecommunications - has opted to purchase a new GSM cellular network , rather than expand the current networks.

The institution say it will purchase the new network following a public tender, but, did not disclose the number of lines it will acquire nor give an estimate of the time it will take.

The last public tender for the 600.000 lines installed by the Ericsson company and made available in December 2005 took almost two years.

Fernando Ibáñez, executive director of the Asociación de Representantes de Fabricantes de Celulares (Asofac), said that ICE told the association that it would have the lines installed within eight months.

Costa Rica currently has 544.000 TDMA lines, 400.000 of the "old" GMS lines, installed by Alcatel, and 600.000 of the "new" GSM lines, installed by Ericsson.

Currently there are only a limited number of TDMA lines available, ICE selling out the 600.000 GSM lines earlier this week, way ahead of schedule.

ICE had announced last month, that to meet the demand it would look at expanding the current contracts with Alcatel and Ericsson by at least 50%, which would have meant an almost instant addition of 500.000 GSM lines.

Geovanni Bonilla, an ICE spokesperson, said that the public bidding process will offer the institution a choice of more available services and better prices.

The current GSM networks have been criticized by users for offering poor service, in both signal strength and coverage. At peak hours, service is poor, calls are dropped or not connected.

"We believe that an automatic expansion of the current service is not a viable solution. We want to put in place a real expansion plan for mobile services and that includes allowing the invitation of third parties to bid for the new purchase", said Bonilla.