10.000 TDMA Cell Lines Will Be Made Available Next Week
Cellular telephone users in Costa Rica know well the difference between a TDMA and GSM line. Well, not the technical differences, but the differences in coverage in certain areas in the country.

On more than one occasion, two people, one with a GSM cell phone and the other with a TDMA cell phone, will find that one has coverage and the other doesn't. And this is not just common to remote areas, but sometimes in the Central Valley.

Thus, many customers of GSM and those living in the southern zone, for instance, will be happy with the news that the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the state monopoly on telecommunications, will be making avialable 10.000 TDMA lines come Monday, no wait, Tuesday, since Monday May 1 is a holiday.


Orlando Cascante, head of mobile communications at ICE, said that the lines will go fast, probably within the first few weeks or less.

To obtain cellular service you will need a "cedula", the bill of sale for the telephone, a utility bill in your name and ¢12.500 colones for the deposit. Your time at an ICE office will be shorter if you bring along copies of all the required documents. ICE policy says that foreigners (non-residents) cannot obtain cellular service/

Cascante added that ICE will be more meticolous in accepting just any utility bill since they have encountered fraud in the past.

ICE's concern is the practice of paying off an indigent to obtain a cellular line and then stiffing ICE with a large bill, especially for international calls, to which ICE has no recourse by the ¢12.500 colones deposit, added Cascante.