ICE Fails To Fulfill Promises On Information Line
The question being asked around town yesterday was how can the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) manage the country's power network when it can't even keep to its schedule of rotating power cuts. The question was put to ICE's president, Pablo Pedro Quirós, who said that a special line was set up so that people can call to find out when power will be out in their neighbourhood.

The numbers are 126 and 800-ENERGIA always ring busy.

Quirós just shrugged off the comment, saying that line announced on Thursday was being managed by the Compaña Naciónal de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) - an ICE subsidiary - and that a three digit number would be announced later in the day (Friday), a line manager by ICE and capable of large number of simultaneous calls.

ICE announced rotating power cuts all over the country and distributed to all newspaper, radio and television stations and published on its website, stating the times and areas affected by the power cuts.

The idea is to give people and business notice of when the power will be out to plan their lives and operations, However, neither the announced times and areas were respected, many feeling that ICE was mocking them, as they found themselves without power when it wasn't their turn, and other areas not affected at all.

Quirós assured Telenoticias at noon that by  4:00pm Friday afternoon the new telephone line would be available and citizens could call in for information.

However, that did not happen either and on their website, they now say that the direct line will be available on Monday,  April 30.