Cellular Frenzy Is On
Beginning this morning the state monopoly on telecommunicatoins, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), begins selling off 40.000 GSM cellular telephone lines. They are lines coming back to ICE for non-payment or customers simply giving up their subscriptions.

However, the cellular lines won't be actually available unitl May 15, ICE is taking reservations beginning this morning at all its agencies or by telephone by calling at 145. ICE authorized agents are also taking reservations as they will be able to offer up to 60% of the lines to their customers.

The frenzy is on because this is all on a first-come first-served basis. Those waiting in line at ICE agencies or patient enough to get through on the telephone will be able to get service.

The institution completely ran out of cellular lines back in 2004. A contract for awarded to the Ericsson company saw the addition of 600.000 new GSM cellular lines in December of 2005, a number that was supposed to meet the needs of the country for a couple of years.

However, ICE did not estimate the demand correctly and all the 600.000 lines were completely sold out in one year, leaving only the older TDMA technology lines available since last December. Many of the 500.000 TDMA customers switched to GSM, which offers more services and cellular phones with expanded features like cameras and multimedia functions.

The 40.000 lines are lines that for some reason or other customers failed to pay their bills. ICE has been very strict in that department, temporarily disconnecting service if payment is more than 8 days late and cancelling subscriptions if two consecutive bills go unpaid.

Customers travelling outside of Costa Rica have complained of having their service cancelled because of extended vacations as the state telecom will not allow prepayment of its services, saying that customers now have many options to pay, including online at all national state and private banks.

To obtain cellular service in Costa Rica, ICE still requires that subscribers are residents and not have more than 3 cellular lines already in their name. Potential customers have to visit an ICE agency or authorized agent, along with their cellular telephone and a receipt for its purchase in Costa Rica (a customs declaration if the telephone was not purchased in Costa Rica) and a recent utility bill in the customer's name. A deposit of ¢12.500 colones is required as well.

Non-residents and visitors cannot subscribe to the cellular network and ICE has yet to introduce the prepayment service that is available in most countries.

Many foreigners insist on having their cellular phone connected only to find out that ICE is very strict on that policy, Also, some tourists have been surprised to find that their cellular phone works in Costa Rica, only to be surprised by a large bill when they get home. ICE has roaming arrangements with many cellular services in the United States and Europe, however at costs of up to us$3 dollars per minute even on a local call.

ICE is currently working on a bidding proposal to add some 1.5 million new cellular lines that, if all goes well, should be installed within the next two years. In the meantime the institution has been negotiating expanding the Ericsson network, without the bidding process as permitted by its original contract, for 300.000 new cellular lines that could be available come this December.