Costa Rican
Trade Minister Tells Jamaicans Doors Are
Wide Open
ICE Will Seek
Compensation If It Has Frequencies Taken
Away
San Jose Airport
Terminal Completion Has Begun
Crew Of USS
Gary Denied Disembarking
Five Months
Overdue And Still No Train To Heredia
ICE Not Paying
The Red Cross Either
ICE Will Seek
Compensation If It Has Frequencies Taken
Away
The move to open the telecommunications
market has been slow, and the main stumbling
block is the Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE), who has made it clear to
fight tooth and nail to delay the arrival of
competitors to its cellular and internet
market.
In the latest rounds of stalling and
threats, ICE's president, Pedro Pablo Quirós,
said it would seek compensation if the new
formed Superintendencia de
Telecomunicaciones (Sutel) -
telecommunications regulator- for any radio
frequencies it has taken away.
The Sutel on Friday handed over a report to
the Ministerio de Ambiente Energía y
Telecomunicaciones (Minaet) on the use of
radio frequencies in the country.
The Sutel has made a review of all radio
frequencies assigned in Costa Rica, asking
owners of frequencies to report their use,
so that the Minaet can evaluate and assign
radio frequencies to incoming competitors in
the cellular market.
ICE's president said that if it is told that
it is wasting away frequencies and that the
will be assigned to another user, it should
be compensated, like it has been done in
other countries.
Last Friday, ICE made a last minute payment
of fees owed to Sutel, avoiding the
regulator's temporary closure. ICE had vowed
not to pay the last quarterly instalment,
claiming that the Sutel was not holding up
its end of the bargain.
ICE has had a monopoly on telecommunications
in the country, ending with the passage of
legislation last fall.
However, ICE continues to be the sole
telecom operator of cellular service in the
country, as competitors wade through the
process of approval and installation and
marketing of their systems.
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