ICE
Fails To Hand Over Radio Frequencies
Required For Cellular Competition
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE), in typical fashion, once again is at
play to delay the coming of competition in
the cellular telephone services sector. The
latest is the failure to hand over to the
Poder Ejecutivo (government), as agreed, the
frequencies that will be used by
competitors.
ICE and the Poder Ejecutivo signed an
agreement last week and for the compensation
of us$7 million dollars, it would
immediately hand over six sub-bands and two
more in January.
The Poder Ejecutivo would then be in a
position to authorize the frequencies, which
are state property, to be used by
Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel)
to issue licenses to cellular operators to
start up their operations in Costa Rica.
The failure by ICE means Costa Rican
president, Oscar Arias, cannot sign the
decree that would allow the Sutel to begin
the bidding process, which is expected to
take up to four months, to issue operating
licenses.
The plan had been to bring competition to
Costa Rica's cellular market by the middle
of 2010. However, ICE's continue stalling
and failure to complete agreements, delays
the plan to 2011.
The director de Comunicación for ICE, Elbert
Durán, said that if there is an agreement in
place, it is being defined in talks with the
Poder Ejecutivo, as some vital aspects have
to be made precise and clear.
The Durán statement is in direct
contradiction to the announcement made by
Casa Presidencial last week, that an
agreement had been reached and signed.
Following the ICE action and Durán
statement, Pablo Guerén, spokesperson for
the Ministro de la Presidencia, said the
matter is not yet resolved and that talks
with ICE officials are ongoing and a
resolution should be made soon.
The opening of the telecommunications market
in Costa Rica followed the signing of the
free trade agreement with the US, the
Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC, as it is
known locally or CAFTA in the US).
And although legislators, following the
ratification of the TLC, passed the law -
Ley de Telecommunicaciónes - that
effectively broke up the ICE monopoly in the
country and the creation of the
Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel),
ICE continues to the sole provider of fixed
line and cellular telephone service in Costa
Rica.
Taking part in the talks between ICE and the
government are the president of the state
institution, Pedro Pablo Quirós and the
viceministra de Telecomunicaciones del
Minaet, Hannia Vega. |
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