ICE To Offer Television
On Your Cellular
Telephone
Watching your favourite
television program on
your cellular telephone
may soon be a reality in
Costa Rica as the
nstituto Costarricense
de Electricidad (ICE) -
the state monopoly on
telecommunications - is
testing its signal
transmission.
ICE says it plans to
offer the service over
the GSM by the second
half of the this year.
For the test trials ICE
is transmitting only
local channels 6 and 7.
No word if more channels
will be made available.
According to Aaron
Quesada, of ICE's
Departamento de Gestión
de Datos, the network
can handle thousands of
connections at one time
though during the test
trials only some 52
connections are being
used.
To access the service, a
GSM cellular telephone
unit that uses either
the Windows Mobile or
Symbian operating system
has to be used.
During the first half of
this year ICE plans to
send the signal to all
Internet Celular
customers, some 50.000
users, to evaluate the
quality of the service
during a pilot project.
The plan is to charge
and additional charge to
the ¢3.500 colones
(us$7) monthly for
internet service.
ICE estimates that 10%
of the cellular phones
now in Costa Rica - some
200.00. - have the
capacity for television
reception.
"We don't believe we
will be delayed too long
because the application
is already possible. We
have to now define the
commerical elements",
said Claudio Bermúdez,
ICE's subgerente de
Telecomunicaciones.
Bermúdez added that
radio transmission is
also being planned and
talks with local radio
stations are underway.
The radio service would
offer music without the
commercials.
ICE informs that to
access television on
your cellular phone -
free for now - go to:
http://videomovil.ice.co.cr
from your cellular
telephone.
Free MMS Service
ICE also now allows
Multimedia Messaging
Service (MMS) that
allows the transfer of
photos, music and video
over the GSM network.
To use the service,
customers must be
subscribed to the
Internet Celular and
configure their
telephone based on the
number prefix. For a
list of numbers that can
be configured go to:
http://grupoice.com/esp/serv/per/cel/catal_sm/men_multi/disponibilidad.htm
The MMS service is free
until ICE gets
regulatory approval to
set a rate. |
|
