300.000 GSM Lines
Purchase Approved
The Contraloría General
de la República (CGR) -
Comptroller's office -
yesterday approved the
purchase of an
additional 300.000 GSM
cellular telephone lines
by the Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE).
The country has been
without any new GSM
lines since last October
and the state monopoly
on telecommunications
decided to extend the
Ericsson contract to
fill the gap while the
ICE continues with the
process of purchasing
1.5 million of 3G
generation cellular
lines.
The new lines will be
available by the end of
January next year and
not in time December as
ICE has hope to take
advantage of the
Christmas buying season.
The new 300.000 lines
are an extension of the
600.000 GSM lines
installed by the
Ericsson company, the
second of the GSM
cellular networks in the
country.
ICE had the option of
purchasing a further
200.000 lines from the
Alcatel who installed
the 400.000 first GSM
network, however, due to
the scandal involving
payoffs from Alcatel to
high ICE and government
officials, including
former Costa Rican
president, Miguel Angel
Rodriguez, ICE decided
to pass.
The purchase will also
be able ICE to provide
better coverage,
according to Claudio
Bermúdez,
telecommunications
manager, with the
installation of 33 new
radio towers to complete
the network of 480
towers throughout the
country.
Currently, there are
many areas with poor to
no reception, especially
at peak times when the
networks are saturated
with users.
The purchase will set
ICE back some us$65
million dollars.
New customers for the
GSM network will soon be
able to place their name
on a waiting list and
will have preference
when the lines do
actually become
available.
And as always, ICE only
permits nationals and
residents to subscribe
to the cellular network. |
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