1.5 Million Cellular
Lines Promised For 2009
The Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE)
announced yesterday that
it will have available
1.5 million cellular
lines in 2009 after it
signed a deal with the
Banco Centroamericano de
Integración Económica (BCIE).
The new lines will of
the third generation
known as 3G.
The deal between ICE and
the BCIE is for the bank
to finance the purchase
and installation of the
equipment and then
leasing it to ICE.
Elbert Durán,
spokesperson for ICE,
said that the first 1
million lines will be
offered in the first
half of 2009.
The deal still has to be
approved by the
Contraloría General de
la República
(Comptroller's office).
Once the approval has
been granted, ICE will
begin the process of
tendering the project
and selecting a
provider.
The project will place
ICE among the top
cellular service
providers in the world
who are already offering
3G service.
What is 3G?
3G technology enable
network operators to
offer users a wider
range of more advanced
services while achieving
greater network capacity
through improved
spectral efficiency.
Services include
wide-area wireless voice
telephony and broadband
wireless data.
3G promises increased
bandwidth, up to 384
Kbps when a device is
stationary or moving at
pedestrian speed, 128
Kbps in a car, and 2
Mbps in fixed
applications. 3G will
work over wireless air
interfaces such as GSM,
TDMA, and CDMA. The new
EDGE air interface has
been developed
specifically to meet the
bandwidth needs of 3G.
In simpler terms, 3G
allows features like
enhanced mutlimedia -
video calls, transfer of
video signals like
movies and television,
email, fax, video
conferencing, web
browsing and of course
making and receive
telephone calls. In
addition, 3G offers the
potential to keep people
connected at all times
and in all places.
3G refers to the third
generation of
developments in wireless
technology. The 1G
period began in the late
1970s and lasted through
the 1980s. The 2G phase
began in the 1990s and
much of this technology
is still in use. The 2G
cell phone features
digital voice encoding.
Examples include CDMA
and GSM.
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