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Court Upholds Ericsson Contract
Costa Rica's Constitutional
Court (Sala IV) has thrown out a
lawyer's attempt to annul a
us$130 million contract awarded
to Ericsson by telecom monopoly
ICE and approved by the
comptroller, for the
installation of a new GSM
network.
Lawyer Pablo Barahona took legal
action last week against the
officials of the comptroller's
office, reviving allegations of
bribery between employees of ICE
and Ericsson. He alleged that
Ericsson paid for hotel lodgings
of former ICE officials during a
visit to Sweden last year.
The contract, which is for
600,000 GSM lines, got the green
light in March this year despite
an internal investigation into
possible bribery.
The nod from the constitutional
court is an added guarantee that
the project will go ahead.
ICE hopes to begin selling lines
by December 2005, when it will
try to have around 200,000
ready. Ericsson's GSM network
will let subscribers send
photos, animated images and
music from their handsets.
The current GSM network
installed by Alcatel only allows
SMS text messaging GPRS internet
service,
Costa Rica ran completely out of
new mobile lines last December
and has been rapidly selling off
phone lines from delinquent
accounts to alleviate the
situation.
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