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ICE Ordered to Reimburse
Customers
Two weeks ago the Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE) asked the Autoridad
Reguladora de los Servicios
Públicos (ARESEP) - the
government body that regulates
public prices and services - for
an increase of 14% for telephone
service.
However, the ARESEP, says it
refused the request and has
ordered the telephone company to
pay back to it's subscribers
¢448 colones to each fixed
telephone and ¢172 colones to
cellular customers.
The ARESEP has rejected the
increase request saying that ICE
has to still comply with an
order to reimburse telephone
customers for problems in
service during the 20 day strike
back in May and June of 2003
when customers did not have
access to 113 (telephone
directory) and 193 and 115,
cellular and fixed line customer
service respectively.
The ARESEP says that ICE must
first comply with the order
issued by it in November 2003
before it can deal with the
increase request.
The ARESEP is also demanding
that ICE report on the cost of
operating the fixed line
telephone system and the
investment needed to satisfy the
growing demand for telephone
service. This request was made
last September when ICE
requested a increase in
telephone service but was never
complied with.
Fernando Alfaro, Director of
Telecommunications at the ARESEP,
said it is understandable that
the telephone company may not be
able to provide all the
information in time as
requested, but it is up to the
entity to provide an
alternative.
For his part, Geovany Bonilla, a
director at ICE, says that the
institution will respect the
ARESEP order and is in the
process of analyzing the options
on how it will pay back it's
customers.
Though there are no definite
numbers, it is estimated that
the reimbursement will cost ICE
some ¢80 million colones
(us$168.000).
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