After a resolution was issued for the reorganization of the 700 MHz band, Telecomunicaciones de Guatemala S.A. and the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office submitted appeals for revocation to the Superintendence of Telecommunications.
The controversy originated after Comunicaciones Celulares S.A. bought from Albavision in 2019 the usufruct titles that are immersed in the 700Mhz band. This transaction was made in the secondary market.
A new regulation is in force that has as one of its purposes to compensate the customer for the poor quality of the connection and to automatically compensate when service failures are prolonged.
The General Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET) approved the Quality Regulation for Public Telephony and Data Transmission Services, which is intended to improve the service that different companies currently provide.
A ruling by the Administrative Court has annulled the General Rules for Municipal Licenses for Telecommunications and is demanding the preparation of a new one in less than three months.
The ruling by the tribunal in a lawsuit filed by Claro in January 2014, indicates that the Municipality of Alajuela must pay damages to the company, after it argued that it was unable to build telecommunications infrastructure in the region of Alajuela because of the regulations by which the municipality was governed.
Caps imposed by the Superintendency on tariffs for telecommunications services restrict competition by preventing operators from offering more expensive packages to more affluent segments.
The telecommunications industry is requesting the freeing up of rates with the aim of letting the market itself be responsible for setting them, with oversight by the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel).
Even though demand continues to grow, operators are not able to grow due to lack of effective competition in the mobile market and delays in the allocation of spectrum.
A portion of customers in the cellular market and other telecommunications services such as internet and cable television are still dissatisfied, but telecommunications companies are not able to increase their services due to the slow rate at which the rules are set and at which infrastructure problems are addressed.
Operators of the telecommunications market in Costa Rica are calling for intervention by the regulator in rates to be removed and for operations to be carried out within a framework of real commercial freedom.
After more than six years of having promoted laws which opened up the telecommunications market in Costa Rica, no operator has the ability to unilaterally set final prices or manipulate conditions in the telecommunications market.
The country was the only one in Central America which had no law on the subject.
Telephone companies have until next September 30 to do everything that the law requires to start operating a number portability system by October 1.
According to Deputy Thomas Zambrano, the law will benefit more than seven million users who are subscribed to three mobile companies including Tigo, Claro and Hondutel.
When portability was allowed in Panama, some expected an stampede of users unhappy with their providers, but the dynamics have been very different.
This same feeling is held by the telecommunications companies in Costa Rica, who could take the situation in Panama as an example, where changes represent only 1.92% of the number of cell phone customers in the country, estimated at 6, 7 million up to the end of 2012.
The supervisor of telecommunications and major operators have agreed to implement number portability in November 2013.
After arguing that it was technically impossible to implement the necessary equipment until March 2014, "the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) agreed to accelerate the purchase of equipment in order to implement number portability, while Movistar and Claro operators relaxed deadlines for developing the system which had been agreed on months ago," noted an article in Elfinancierocr.com.
The state telecoms company says it can not adapt its systems to number portability by March 2014.
The ICE has set up every possible legal and administrative resource in order to prevent the entry into operation of number portability, so that it can perpetuate its business advantage (captive customers) in the light of newcomers. Now it is simply reporting that it is technically unprepared to join the system by which mobile phone users can retain their telephone identification when moving from one operator to another.
In Guatemala and proposals arising from the recently passed amendment to the Communications Act, which extended radio concessions for 20 years.
In light of the act coming into effect, deputies in the Transparency Commission are preparing a bill relating to the issue of transparency, Deputy Carlos Barreda, a member of the panel, said "We must establish that the usufruct be delivered through an auction or implement a public payment for its renewal.
The Costa Rican Telecommunications Superintendence has defined the methodology to be used to set interconnection rates between telecommunication providers.
In the short term, this will define how much new telecomm operators will have to pay to the Costa Rican Electricity Institute to connect to its network.
Newspaper Prensa Libre explained that “the model to be used is called ‘Long-Run Incremental Cost Modelling’, and takes into consideration service demand, unitary costs, network design, total network cost and unitary interconnection costs. This will help the parties in defining prices that are close to reality”.
Although the project is not well-known in the country, the President of the Nicaraguan Institute of Communications has commented in Cuba that the proposal is already ready.
The President of the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Mail (Telcor), Orlando Castillo, commented a few days ago, in the 2009 XIII Data Processing International Convention and Fair, which was held in Cuba, that the initiative that entails a new telecommunications law in Nicaragua will be ready soon.
After months in a difficult process, the Superintendence of Telecommunications has finally be formed.
According to reports by MIPUNTO.com, "The institution was created as a result of the privitization of mobile telephone and internet services as contemplated in the Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States, which came into effect in Costa Rica on January 1.