A month ago, the Costa Rican Electricity Insitute (ICE) returned a number of radio frequencies for being auctioned between private operators. Experts are now questioning if this process was legally valid.

Others complain of technical limitations in how the frequencies will be distributed, and of the requisites being imposed on companies interested in the auction.

Ricardo Taylor, from Claro Costa Rica, who expects to operate in the country, explained that they could be offering their services five to six months after the contract is signed.

Source: elfinancierocr.com

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Costa Rica: Cell Phone Competition by end of 2011

November 2010

December 14 is the deadline for reception of offers, but it won´t be until late 2011 that the market will finally be open to competition.

The Superintendent of Telecommunications, George Miley, described the process of allocating frequencies and the scheduled. The frequencies should be awarded by April 2011, four months after offers are submitted.

Costa Rica Resumes Mobile Telephony Auction

March 2010

The Telecommunications Superintendence was authorized by the Comptroller of the Republic to resume the process for auctioning mobile telephony frequencies.

This process was halted in January, as some legislators questioned the transparency of the bidding rules.

Congressmen argued if it was adequate to have law firm BLP involved in defining the bidding rules, as this firm represents some of the companies interested in the process.

Costa Rica: Informative Meeting on Mobile Telephony Frequencies

January 2010

The Telecommunications Superintendence (Sutel) will host an informative meeting with companies interested in obtaining a frequency for mobile telephony services.

The meeting will take place on January 18th, at 11 a.m. at Hotel Intercontinental in San José.

"George Miley, head of Sutel's council, explained that the meeting will be used to explain which public contest process will be used to auction mobile telephony frequencies to new operators", reported Nacion.com.

Costa Rica: Mobile Competition Delayed

September 2009

A three month delay in the market opening process will prevent the entrance of competitors expected for mid 2010.

Geroge Miley, president of the Telecommunications Superintendence (Sutel), explained that the delay is due to a lack of definition on the frequencies to be used for installing private networks.