Three weeks later, Lake Arenal communities still without phone service

May 23^rd, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) Residents in several communities on the north side of Lake Arenal continue without landline telephone service since Friday, May 2^nd, and three weeks later ICE still has no word on when service will be restored.

Most of the communities affected are located between Tilaran and Nuevo Arenal.

The outage is the result of a massive theft of perhaps kilometers worth of cable, an ICE representative told Inside Costa Rica.

The representative said he was unable to provide an estimate as to when service would be restored.

The outage is especially affecting small businesses in the area, which besides being unable to receive telephone calls, are unable to process customers’ credit cards, as the terminals used require a landline telephone connection.