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ICE TO Begin VoIP
Pilot Program Next Month
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ICE TO Begin VoIP Pilot
Program Next Month
The current rate for an
international call to
the United States is
us$0.30 cents per
minute, however, if the
call is made by way of
the internet, using VoIP,
the call costs only
us$0.05 cents per
minute.
The difference is great
and come next month, the
Instituto Costarrice de
Electricidad (ICE) will
being testing the
technology that allows
callers to use their
computer or a telephone
connected directly to
the internet to make and
receive calls.
VoIP is not new to Costa
Rica. Many already are
using the technology,
but not with ICE's
blessing, who has seen a
reduction in
international calls from
customers using VoIP
instead of ICE's
service.
Claudio Bermúdez,
communications manager
at ICE said that the
institution will be
testing its pilot
project between December
and March before making
it fully available.
"The is to test the
service and rate
structure, to test the
demand with the idea of
introducing the service
officially before the
end of 2008", said
Bermúdez.
Before ICE can
officially offer the
service it has to have a
rate approval by the
Autoridad Reguladora de
los Servicios Públicos (Aresep)
- the regulator of
public prices and
services.
Bermúdez added that ICE
will evaluate the
results of the pilot
project to see the
number of potential
users for the service
and determine the rates
they can afford to pay
before submitting a rate
proposal to the Aresep.
ICE did the same with
its GPRS service -
cellular internet.
However, with the GPRS
the trial and evaluation
period lasted more than
2 years before the
institution was able to
obtain rate approval by
the Aresep and the was
allowed a lower monthly
rate than was proposed.,
VoIP - Voice Over
Internet Protocol - also
called IP Telephony,
Internet Telephony or
Broadband Phone is a
routing of voice
conversation over the
internet or through an
IP based network. VoIP's
carry telephony signals
as digital audio,
typically reduced in
data rate using speech
data compression
techniques, encapsulated
in a data packet stream
over IP.
To use VoIP, the users
needs a computer or
specially designed IP
phone that connects to
the internet. Calls are
then made and received
using the computer or IP
phone and carried over
the internet at a much
lower cost than
traditional
international calls.
Currenlty ICE has 85.000
users of the Acelera
service, with plans to
expand to 160.000 users
next year, as well as
expand the system
capacity from the
current 8 Mb
transmission rate to 24
Mb, which is also able
to carry television
signal over the
internet.
According to Manuel
Incer, an ICE
telecommunications
engineer, the current
traffic only uses 4 Mb.
Since the middle of last
month ICE obtained the
approval of the
Contraloría General de
la República
(Comptroller's office)
to purchase the
necessary equipment to
expand the IP network,
signing a contract worth
us$20 million dollars.
Once the IP network is
expanded ICE should be
able to easily meet
growth demands for VOiP
services.
However, before ICE's
VOiP service can be used
fully, the state
institution has to
establish agreements
with carriers in the
destination country, the
first and largest market
being the United States.
ICE says that the
difference between their
service and that offered
by Skype and Vonage, for
instance, is it can
guarantee that the
quality of the
connection will be
superior, very similar
to a fixed line
conservation.
VoIP carry telephony
signals as digital
audio, typically reduced
in data rate using
speech data compression
techniques, encapsulated
in a data packet stream
over IP, carried by
different network routes
to its final
destination.
Once ICE has its service
up and running it will
be competing with Skype,
Vonage and a number of
local VoIP service
providers already have a
large number of
customers signed up in
Costa Rica |
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A diagram of how VoIP
works. |
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Using it's 3 Skypephone instead, Skype customers can use
a stylish mobile phone that calls, texts and takes
pictures. The phone is currenlty only available in the
UK and Italy, but will be around the world in no time. |
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