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Good News / Bad News For
Cellular Phone Customers
The bad news is that in a few
weeks, the Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE) will have sold out all of
it's 600.000 cellular telephone
lines it began to market last
year,
The good news is that ICE can
purchase additional lines from
the installers of the existing
networks, Ericcson and Alcatel,
without having to go through the
lengthy tender process, that can
take up to two years.
However, the purchase needs the
approval of the Contraloría
General de la República (the
Comptroller's office) and that
could be good news turning to
bad, if the Contraloría turns
thumbs down at the proposal.
ICE says that the purchase is an
expansion of the existing
service and thus does need to
call a tender. The state
institution plans to purchase
300.000 from Ericcson and
200.000 from Alcatel.
If the Contraloría approves the
proposal, the lines would be in
service within months and not
years, as would happen is a
complete tender is required.
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