The current price for a litre of super gasoline is ¢312.5 colones. With the new increase the price could jump to ¢332.5 or ¢22 colones per litre. The increase represent a 7% increase in prices.

Survey Shows Majority Against Truckers
An informal survey conducted Insidecostarica.com yesterday, shows that the majority of "ticos" are against the blockades by the truckers.

Similar results were obtained by Demoscopía, a survery firm hired by the daily Spanish newspaper Al Día.

The Demoscopía report shows that of 409 Costa Ricans interviewed all over the country, 98.5% were aware of the protests, while only 6% said they had not been aware of what was going on.

Data shows that 51.6% said they were affected by the blockades, however, only 47.9% were in favour of eliminating the Riteve monopoly on vehicle inspections, supporting the truckers.

Kerry Sister to Visit C.R.
Diana Kerry, sister of U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry, is scheduled to visit Costa Rica this Friday, August 27 and will remain in the country until the 29th.

According to the Democratic campaign office, Kerry will be in Costa Rica to promote Americans to vote in the next election.

Kerry is scheduled to participate in a BBQ at a 'finca' owned by an American, to register new voters, according to information released by the Costa Rican chapter of the Americans Overseas for Kerry-Edwards (AOK).

There are an approximate 20.000 Americans living in Costa Rica of the between 4 and 7 million Americans who live outside the United States.

Kerry's visit is part of an unprecedented global campaign to visit 100 cities in the world with a high American population and is expected to be completed before the 15th of September.
 

Internet by Cellular Telephone Coming Soon
The internet is coming to cellular telephones in Costa Rica.

WAP (Wireless application protocol) and internet access over the cellular telephone network is being planned by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and has asked the regulating authority ARESEP to set the rates for the service at ¢10 for each kbytes of traffic and ¢4 colones for access to the internet by way of a cellular phone.

WAP service allows a cellular telephone to browse the internet with a normal web browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape, while internet access only provides POP email service.

Both services are available over the GSM network using the technology known as GPRS. ICE wants to take full advantage of the GSM technology.

Cellular customers can make a normal telephone call while accessing the internet. ICE is not planning on charging customers on a minute of connection basis, but rather on the amount of transfer of data.

ICE expects some 2.100 customers to connect to the internet by way of cellular telephone, while it expects more than 6.000 for the WAP service.

Customers must have a GPRS capable cellular telephone and connected to the GSM network.