HO H! HO!... Craziness For Cellular Phones
The craziness to get a cell phone began at 7:30pm sharp, when the Instituto Costarricense de Electrticidad (ICE) made available the first 250.000 of the 600.000 new GSM network lines.

Though ICE offices were closed at that hour, hundreds of authorized ICE agents, however, were open and ready to receive customers who bought a telephone and the line. The lines at Importadora Monge, a large retail chain that has been advertising the lines and special prices for cellular phones for more than a week, were long, mainly by those who did not trust that ICE would have lines coming this morning.

At other authorized cellular dealers the situation was calmer, though business brisk.

This is perhaps the most waited event of the year. During the last several years, there have been no new cellular telephone lines available, only sporadic sales of existing lines where customers who did not pay their bills, the lines were taken back by the telephone company and re-assigned to other customers.

The new GSM network installed by the Ericcson company is not fully functional. The basic services of the system are operational, making and receiving calls, voicemail and text messaging. However, the multimedia functions and security measures won't be available until March of next year when the balance - 350.000 - of the cellular lines will be made available.

Though the Spanish daily newspapers announced that the sale would not start until 7:30pm, a move away from the tradition of making the lines available first thing Monday morning, hundreds lined up outside ICE offices early in the morning, only to find offices like the one on Avenida Segunda closed, with a sign posted of the change in hours.

At other ICE offices, the number of people coming in to get a cellular line was steady, only to be turned away.

ICE had announced that only customers with the number 250.000 or less would be served. The 193 - cellular customer service at ICE - was jammed completely yesterday, as callers kept the operators busy wanting information about the new service and to confirm their order number.