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That's It, No More GSM Lines!
Been procrastinating on getting
a cellular phone? Well, your
time ran out, as the Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE) announced yesterday that
is completely out of GSM
cellular lines.
ICE - the state monopoly on
telecommunications - announced
that it had sold out all of the
600.000 GSM lines it purchased
from the Ericsson company last
year.
Georvanni Bonilla, the official
spokesperson for ICE, said that
80.000 of the TDMA - old
technology - lines are still
available and that GSM lines
will be available.
Bonilla said that GSM lines may
become available from time to
time as their owners don't pay
their bills and ICE will group
them to be made available to new
owners.
Bonilla added that there is no
time frame when the institution
will have new lines, as they are
studying the possibility of
purchasing some 500.000 GSM
lines from the two existing
suppliers - Alcatel and Ericsson
- without the requirement of a
bidding contract.
The ICE representative said that
the institution is studying a
number of options that include
expanding the existing contracts
with Alcatel and Ericsson, or
perhaps a third party or a
combination. Bonilla added that
once the purchase option is
defined, the institution can
then give a timeframe for the
purchase and sale of the new
lines.
For the time being, ICE falls
back to not been able to meet
the demands of its customers.
Currently there are some 1.5
million cellular telephone
customers; 544.000 TMDA and
1.000.000 GSM.
Last December, ICE put on sale
600.000 "new" GSM lines that was
supposed have met the demand for
a number of years. However, in
less than 12 months, the state
institution is back to where it
was at this time last year, when
customers had to patiently wait
months on end to get a cell
line, and then only to be able
to make calls and receive text
and voice mail.
All the "goodies" offered the
new technology, like mobile
internet, video transfers, etc.
were not make available to the
public even though the system
allows the functions.
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