ICE Plans Tender For A Million Cellular Lines
Costa Rica's monopoly on telecommunications, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) expects to launch a tender for at least a million cellular lines next year, with a view to having them available in 2008,  according to ICE mobile services director Orlando Cascante.

ICE launched its last mobile infrastructure tender in 2002 aimed at satisfying demand for an estimated 600,000 lines during 2006-2007. However, handset prices and call rates are now much lower than the company expected and these lines are being snapped up. They  are likely to be sold out within a month, Cascante said.

ICE is now evaluating exactly how many lines could be required in 2008 and expects to determine this figure within the next few months.

The last tender was plagued by delays as the Contraloria General de la Republica (comptroller) questioned ICE's decision to award the contract to Swedish equipment supplier Ericsson.

Finally, the us$130million contract went to Ericsson in March 2005 and the vendor delivered the lines in December of the same year. ICE originally planned to sell half of the lines in 2006, but now it has sold all but 70,000.

To help satisfy demand in 2007 ICE has a limited option to expand contracts with previous suppliers, which means another 300,000 lines could be supplied by Ericsson and France's Alcatel.

ICE has a total mobile client base of 1.5 million users at present.