Barriers to Opening up the Cell Phone Market

The telephone operators Claro and Movistar are still facing serious bureaucratic obstacles with the municipalities of Costa Rica over the installation of cellular towers.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Some municipalities are delaying, hindering or even prohibiting the installation of infrastructure by the operators Claro and Movistar, an operation which needs to be carried out in order to comply with their contracts.

The situation has led to the operators requesting an extension of the end of the first phase of infrastructure deployment, whose deadline is July 14, said Eduardo Castellón, a spokesman for the Telecommunications Superintendence (Sutel). This request is being analyzed by the authorities, confirmed Hannia Vega, Deputy Minister of Telecommunications, reports Nacion.com.

In the first phase, 29 cantons should have all the infrastructure deployed.

"It is expected that by the end of May (the requests) will be processesd and recommendations made to the Executive Branch," said Vega.

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