Reporting Lost or Stolen Phone Will be More Secure As 193 Operators Now Available 24/7
Have had your cellular telephone disconnected and for no apparent reason by jealous lover or enemy? According to Orlando Cascante, head of mobile services for the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), it happens and ICE cannot do much about it. For now.

A call to the 193 service - the cellular operations unit at ICE - and access to a person's cedula number is enough information to request a cut of the service. Calls requesting the cut are usually made Friday or Saturday evenings, forcing the customer to wait until Monday to reconnect the line and pay the ¢1.520 colones for the service.

Cascante says that ICE is working on the problem and that by January it will have a system in place that a special code issued to a cellular customer is required to terminate or suspend service.

For the meantime, ICE is making 193 operators available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Up to last week, an automated system would take the report after 7pm each evening and all day Saturday and Sunday.

The "live" operator will ask for confirmation of confidential information on file before it will accept the call. Operators also will know where the call is coming from.

Cascante said that the majority of calls to 193 are to report a lost or stolen cellular phone. "There are an average of 10.000 cellular phones a month that are reported stolen", added Cascante.

For cellular customers whose cellular line is the name of another person, it will be best to get your online, as with the changes, it will be more difficult to cut the service if the caller cannot answer the operators questions.