Nine Telecoms Expected To
Compete For Telephone Service in Costa Rica
Telecommunications companies looking to compete with the state
telecom ICE will get their permits in May or June and then have a
year to set up shop in Costa Rica.
A total of nine companies are interested in offering telephone and
internet services in an open market in Costa Rica, among them are
Worldcomm, Amnet, Ticom, R&H international telecom and Intertel
worldwide.
All have applied to the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel),
the newly created telecommunications regulator.
George Miley, president of the Sutel, said that the applications
before them only deal with fixed line and internet
telecommunications, as the Sutel is still waiting on the Minaet to
offer cellular service concessions, which although the Sutel
regulates telecommunications, it is the Minaet (the Ministerio de
Ambiente, Energia and Telecommunications, formerly the Minae) that
has the last word on the telecom infrastructure.
Miley said the Minaet is expected to provide cellular service
concessions in the first quarter of 2010, when the radio frequencies
licenses will be available to anyone interested in providing mobile
telecommunications.
Currently there are 1.7 million cellular lines in operation by the
Instituto Costarricence de Electricidad (ICE), which although it no
longer holds the monopoly, is currently the only cellular service
provider in the country.
The question on the minds of the companies and Costa Ricans are,
what about the rates?
Costa Rica offers one of the lowest telephone rates in Central and
North America. A fixed line residential phone has a minimum monthly
cost of ˘2.155 colones, plus the per minute for local and
international
calling. Cellular service has a minimum monthly cost of ˘3.900 colones, that includes 60 minutes of
local call time.
The Sutel is adamant that it will only fix the ceiling rate and
leave it up to the operators to offer lower prices.
Walter Herrera, a member of the Sutel board, said that the Sutel
will monitor the operators to ensure that their low rates do not
negatively affect the financial position of the operator, affecting
service and possibly leaving customers hanging if the company fails.
The rates are expected to be set in a meeting of the Sutel board
next week.
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