Ericsson and ICE Sign Contract of GSM Service
After an uphill battle for more than year, originally turned down by the Contraloría General de la Republica, a court challenge and a reversal decision by the Contraloría, the Ericsson company and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) have signed the us$130 million dollar contract to install, operate, optimize and maintain a national GSM/GPRS 1800 MHz network in Costa Rica.

This is the largest managed services deal announced in the Central America region.

The contract will see an expansion of cellular service in Costa Rica from the current TDMA and GSM networks that provides service to some 900.000 subscribers.

The network, which is scheduled for launch by end of this year will allow ICE to provide advanced services such as unified messaging, MMS, location-based services (LBS) and SMS.

With these expanded services, cellular customers can use their cellular phones to not only make and receive calls but send and receive a variety of text based messages and navigate the internet.

Furthermore, through this six-years managed services contract with Ericsson, ICE will be able to control its costs and expand its range of services, thus attracting a larger, more diverse subscriber base.

"With this agreement, Ericsson reinforces its telecom leadership in Central America, where the company has won a large share of the GSM contracts awarded," said Lars Linden, president of Ericsson Central America.

"We are honored to have being selected by ICE," said Ricardo Taylor, Country Manager for Ericsson Costa Rica. "Ericsson is committed to providing the highest quality products and services to help ICE supply innovative GSM services in this important market."

Telecommunications is a governmental monopoly in Costa Rica, where Ericsson has operated since 1965. Ericsson's sole customer is ICE, for which Ericsson has supplied fixed and wireless systems.

Ericsson is shaping the future of mobile communications and broadband Internet through continuous technological leadership. Providing innovative solutions in over 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.

Though details are sketchy, with the new service, it is expected that ICE will continue with the same policy about cellular service in Costa Rica. Cellular customers need to be a "cedula" to obtain the service.

That will mean that foreigners - visitors and non-residents - cannot connect to the service and there is no plan to sell "pre-paid" GSM service - the purchase of a SIM chip with a predisposed amount - in the contract.

However, current TDMA customer can switch to the new GSM network without changing their number, unlike the case with the current GSM network installed by Alcatel.