After the session between Sutel and the operators interested in participating in the public auction of the 5G network, the businessmen ask the authorities to draw up a roadmap and a schedule that includes the recovery and availability of the required frequencies.
Claro, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), Telefónica, Call May Way, Huawei Technologies Costa Rica, Next Curve, Telecable, Viasat and Cabletica, were some of the 12 operators that attended the hearing called by the Superintendence of Telecommunications (Sutel), in which the willingness of the companies to participate in the public auction of the frequencies of the radioelectric spectrum in question was known.
The company Telefonica went from monopolizing 22.3% of the total mobile telephone subscriptions in the country in 2015, to concentrating 29.9% at the end of last year.
According to a report prepared by the Superintendence of Telecommunications (Sutel), which was released on November 17th, in the last few years Telefonica has gained ground in the mobile telephone market, and in the cases of Claro and the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), they have decreased their share.
Due to changes in people's habits, energy consumption in commercial establishments, offices and industrial complexes has decreased, contrasting with the rise in demand in residential areas.
The quarantines and restrictions on mobility that Central America has experienced due to the covid-19 outbreak and the latent risk of contagion, has caused radical changes in the region's electricity market.
In the last two months of the year, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute will install 28 new battery recharging stations for this type of vehicle at various points nationwide.
Because the new stations are quick rechargeable, they will be able to charge the battery of electric cars in less than 40 minutes and will have the most popular types of connectors globally.
The high energy tariffs paid in Costa Rica compared to other countries in the region and the effects of the monopoly that exists in electricity generation are threats to the local economy and future investments.
Instead of focusing on being more efficient in its lines of business and stop generating losses, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute will now focus on marketing electric kitchen templates for residential use.
Directors of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) stated that after evaluating consumers' purchasing intentions and conducting a financial and risk analysis, they concluded that the launch of the product, called induction templates, in the Costa Rican market is justified.
Five years after buying it, the Costa Rican state-owned electric company Racsa decided to close Fullmovil, a virtual operator dedicated to the commercialization of prepaid telephony services.
In February 2014, the Superintendence of Telecommunications announced that Radiográfica Costarricense - already in serious financial difficulties - acquired Fullmóvil, a virtual operator involved in the sale of paid telephony services.
After spending $146 million over six years, Costa Rica's state-owned electricity company finally decided to cancel construction of the Diquis hydroelectric power plant in Puntarenas.
Authorities of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), informed that decided to cancel the hydroelectric project due to the fall in national energy consumption and because the country has sufficient installed electricity capacity to meet demand in coming years.
After two consecutive years with falls in revenues, last year the Costa Rican Electricity Institute reported revenue of $1.028 billion, 3% more than in 2016.
The revenues of the telecommunications sector of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) registered an increase last year, which is explained by better performance in the telecommunications wholesalers segment, which corresponds to services coming from the relationship of the ICE with other operators.
The new Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica is opposed to the Diquís project, which the state electricity company has been promoting for ten years, and which consists of building a hydroelectric generation plant in Puntarenas.
While the new leaders of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) announced their intention to refloat the project, which due to unconstitutionality appeals filed against it has remained on paper for years, the Ministry of Environment and Energy has declared its opposition, stating that "... there are no studies or other assessments on the social and economic impact that justify the declaration of national convenience given to the project a decade ago."
The Congress of Costa Rica has finally approved a $500 million loan for the state electricity company to carry out electric generation and transmission works, including three geothermal plants.
Of the total amount of the loan with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved by the Legislative Assembly, close to $200 million will be used to finance the Pailas II, 50 MW, and Borinquen I, 55 MW geothermal projects, both in Liberia, Guanacaste.
With 19% endemic poverty, 10% open unemployment and 40% informal employment, and some of the highest electricity rates in the region, Costa Rica is opposed to $1 billion in clean energy investments.
EDITORIAL
By Jorge Cobas González
Meanwhile, the bureaucracy of state-owned companies continues to prescribe first-world remuneration, and continues to protect its privileges following ECLAC development concepts from the middle of the last century, which are utterly out of place today.Because Costa Rica does not have the investment capacity or know-how necessary for the development of latest generation renewable energy projects, even though it has all of the necessary primary conditions: sun, wind, thermal energy.
In Costa Rica, the state power company will have to pay $112 million to the contractor of the Chucás hydroelectric project, for "additional expenses that it authorized and then refused to recognize."
In the ruling issued by the International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (CICA), to which the company Enel Green Power Costa Rica appealed to resolve a conflict that originated in 2015 due to an almost $148 millionincrease in the Chucás hydroelectric project, which has not yet been completed, it was established that Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) acted with "bad contractual faith".
In Costa Rica a lawsuit filed against the ICE by Unión Fenosa Generadora La Joya, has been rejected. The case included a $7.9 million claim for alleged overcharges for the suspension of a hydroelectric project in Turrialba.
Nacion.com reports that "...The case dates back to 2002 and relates to a BOT - build, operate and transfer - contract signed between the ICE and the Spanish private generator to produce 50 Megawatts (MW) of energy with a water source in the canton of Turrialba."
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad is preparing a tender in which it plans to allocate $5 million for the acquisition of 100 electric vehicles.
The tender also includes the purchase of 100 chargers. Nacion.com reports that"... the details of the brands and models of the equipment have yet to be defined."