Did You Turn Your Cell Phone Off and
On?
The reunification of the cellular networks
went off without a hitch, well almost, as
the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE) transferred all the lines from the
Alcatel GSM network to the Ericsson.
The planned move was to completely eliminate
the Alcatel infrastructure as it had been
causing problems due to lack of maintenance
and contractual disputres between the French
telecommunications giant and Costa Rica's
state telecom.
Other than some few hundred thousand GSM
subscribers were without service for many
hours yesterday, the unification of the two
systems worked out pretty well, according to
ICE technicians.
Some ares in San José, as well as other
areas in the Central Valley like San Ramón
were without service, affecting only certain
numbers.
Adolfo Arias, jefe de la división de
Servicios for ICE said he was pleased with
the results as some 1.6 million customers
are now all one on network.
Although the changeover is automatic simply
by turning off and then on the cellular
unit, some cellular telephones will have
problems doing so.
Arias suggests call to 193 or a visit to any
of ICE's agency if your cellular phone does
not switch over automatically.
Aside from the technical aspects of the
change, the whole process of unification did
not happen until minutes before midnight, as
three minutes before the stroke of midnight
did the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo
(court) give ICE the green light to go ahead
with its plans.
The court dealt with a last minute appeal by
the Genie Card Seguridad who on Friday was
turned down by the same court to push back
the ICE plan for another 60 days.
Genie used the Alcatel GSM network for their
system of vehicle tracking and appealed to
the court to postpone ICE's plans to allow
it to modify its system.
Genie argued that, unlike cellular phones
that can be turned off and on, their system
could not and would hinder their business as
its system would lose track of the vehicles
being monitored.
Genie told the court that ICE did not
provide it with enough time, having been
given only eight days notice and could not
make the technical changes in time.
However, the Tribunal on Saturday gave the
final order for ICE to continue its plans.
Genie lawyer, Abel Chinchilla, said last
night that the Genie will continue with its
legal action against ICE.
The changeover does not affect TDMA cellular
phones.
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If your GSM cellular telephone does not work
this morning - no signal, cannot make or
receive calls - it is because of one of two
things:
1, you need to turn off your unit and turn
it back on, or ;
2, your unit did not switch over
automatically after turning it off and on.
If so, you need to call 193 or visit any ICE
agency tomorrow to get instructions on how
to get your cellular phone working again. |
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