Verizon To Lay Off 120 From Conflict With ICE
Verizon announced yesterday that it will be laying 120 employees, a direct result of the conflict that the company has with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) over the incomplete publication of the telephone directory.

Verizon has been publishing the white and yellows pages directory in Costa Rica for some years. Last year, it made the decision to publish a separate white pages directory for San José and for the provinces, a change from the past directories, when all the phones numbers (except cellular) were published in one book.

Officials at ICE say the change was without their approval and suspended the publication of the directory and refused to distribute it to it's customers, saying that the change would cost it's customers.

With one white pages directory, a customer can look up any telephone number in any province of Costa Rica. With the separate publications, ICE says a customer in Liberia would have to call 113 directory for a number in San José and vice-versa, costing the customer for the call.

Verizon, however, says it did get the approval from ICE managers before making the decision to go to separate books. And the argument continues, as the two sides try to sort out the problem.

In the meantime, Verizon says it has no work for the 120 people being laid off as the contract it has had for the last six that generated the company some us$33 million dollars is in doubt.

ICE, for it's part, has asked the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) to suspend the charges made to the 113 telephone directory since customers do not have a telephone directory available.