New Cellular Lines Go Public Thursday
Haven't gotten your new GSM cellular line yet? What, did not have a reservation? Not to worry, becauce begging this Thursday, the Instituto Costarricense de Elecetricidad (ICE) will be making the lines available to anyone who makes a request.

ICE had been giving priority to those customers who had made a request prior to the introduction of the new service.

On December 5, ICE released the first 250.000 of the 600.000 lines of the new GSM cellular network installed by Ericsson company. The balance of the lines will be available in March of 2006.

The new network included multimedia services like the transfer of videos and photos, including downloading music and video files from the internet, provided you have cellular telephone with the capabilities.

The new network, once fully installed, will also offer customers security against theft and the ability to be located by the 911 emergency system in the event the user cannot tell the 911 operator his or her location.

ICE had expected to have all the lines sold out in the first week, but in reality only 70.000 lines were activated as of close Monday, less than half the expectations. Originally ICE has said that customers with prior reservations would be give 15 days (to Dec 20) before the lines would be offered to the general public, but the low demand forced the change in policy.