Wide Band Internet Now Active
As of yesterday, all Costa Ricans can now access the internet over a wide band known as Red de Internet Avanzada.

Using ADSL, customers, especially those in areas outside of San José, at higher speeds than that offered by dial up.

The services offered by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) will cost $25 monthly for a connection up to 128kbs and $43 for up to 256kbs. Higher speeds are available at a higher cost, which according to ICE, will be competitive with the services offered by cable modem, which charges $70 per month on speeds up to 512kbs.

ADSL means customers can now connect to the internet permanently by using their telephone without tying up the line for voice communications. A special "router" is used to connect the computer to the internet on the same telephone line. The same telephone line transmits both data and voice communications at the same time.

However, customers who are signing up to also take advantage of the low cost for international calling using VOiP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) will be disappointed. Recent tests show that the services like Vonage, a leader in the US of VOiP services will not work properly using ADSL but does using cable modem.

ICE announced earlier this year that it intends to stop the use of VOiP, a system that is slowly cutting into it's international calls revenue. It is not clear how ICE plans to cut off VOiP users.

ICE says the first phase of the project will see 74.000 customers connected and another 100.000 by the first quarter of next year. Currently, ICE has only 10.000 ADSL customers connected.