Municipalities will study how to implement the charge from a legal and taxation point of view. To date it is not clear who would have to pay: the operator or the company that installs and leases the antenna.

"The issue around the new charge is particularly relevant in the context of an announcement from Costa Rica's Telecommunications Regulator (SUTEL) describing the terms by which the government will grant cell frequency concessions is due to be published in mid August. Three private operators are expected to enter the market," writes Nacion.com.

Source: Nacion.com

More on this topic

Barriers to Opening up the Cell Phone Market

May 2012

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

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 Monopoly on Cell Phones is Hard to Crack ...

September 2011

Since November 2010 installing a cell phone tower within 15 kilometers of a Costa Rican airport has required a detailed analysis and authorisation by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Prior to that date, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) had no trouble installing the towers, but now the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decided to adhere to international standards and make everyone endure the the red tape required for granting installation permits.

Costa Rica: No Authorizations for Cell Towers

October 2010

Municipalities still have 2.000 pending applications for building towers.

Problems in issuing permits (just the municipality of Turrialba has 200 requests) have to do with the lack of knowledge on how to process such permits.

"The Government asked on Oct. 21st for representatives of local governments to support a general regulation for municipal procedures on telecommunications" publishes El Financiero on its web page.

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.