Pre-Paid Cellular
Service Won't Be
Available Until End of
2009
Foreigners who are
non-residents and
visitors to Costa Rica
will continue to be
denied cellular service
until at the least the
end of 2009, although
the Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) will
have sufficient lines
and the approval of the
Autoridad Reguladora de
Servicios Públicoa (Aresep)
to provide pre-paid
cellular service.
The plan had been to
introduce pre-paid
cellular service once
ICE installed the 1.5
million cellular lines
it expected to offer in
the first half of 2009.
However, beaurocratic
entanglements and delays
in developing the
pre-paid systems will
not allow ICE to offer
the service on time as
it had expected.
What the news means is
that non-residents
cannot subscribe to
ICE's cellular service
and visitors cannot
purchase a pre-paid SIM
chip to install in their
cellular telephones,
having to resort to
roaming charges or
renting cellular
service.
In the face of the
problem, many foreigners
have found ingenious
ways to obtain a
cellular telephone, such
as setting a deal with a
Costa Rican or resident
to obtain the line in
their name and then used
by the foreigner, an
option that, in some
case, became costly to
the foreigner.
Another solution is
setting up a Costa Rican
corporation and
acquiring the service in
the name of the
corporation, only and
when ICE has sufficient
cellular lines to offer,
which currently there
are none and not
expected until 2009.
What the delay in
introducing the pre-paid
services means for
foreigners and visitors
is a high cost of
cellular service. |
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