The Costa Rica state telecom company is moving away from the purpose that justifies its existence and is impeding the exercise of the popular will in terms of the cellular market opening up.
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), after using every piece of legal chicanery imaginable to prevent the implementation of number portability, is now simply saying "I WONT SIGN", citing technical insolvency as its reason for not integrating the system that allows users to migrate from one cellular communication provider to another, while keeping their phone number.
The obstacles faceed in Costa Rica by the companies Claro and Movistar have already stalled investments of more than $300 million.
According to an article in Elfinancierocr.com George Miley, the resigning president of the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel) warns that "it is urgent that there is a major push by the government to level the playing field in the industry sector, as the country has not received between $300 and $400 million in foreign investment in the last year, due to the problems faced by Claro and Movistar in developing their networks. "
An announcement has been made in Costa Rica for a tender for a project to give rural communities mobile and fixed telephone coverage, with funding from the National Telecommunications Fund.
The National Telecommunications Fund (Fonatel) is endowed with payments for operating licenses awarded to telecom operators such as Claro and Movistar, and currently has $190 million to be used to promote access to quality, timely, efficient, affordable and competitive telecommunications services, for the inhabitants of areas of the country where the cost of investment for the installation and maintenance of infrastructure for the provision of these services is not financially profitable.
The Costa Rican regulator has prevented telephone companies Telefónica and ICE from agreeing on tariffs for end users within a contract for interconnecting their networks.
The company Claro filed a complaint to the Superindendency of Telecommunications (Sutel), which stated that the access and interconnection agreement signed between the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and Telefónica, contained clauses where both companies agreed not to charge prices below the cost of services provided, considering the interconnection charges as a cost common to both.
The comptroller has endorsed their contracts; they may begin operations two weeks after being notified.
The Controller General of the Republic has stressed that the contract with the companies involves not only the installation of the network, but provision of mobile services as well.
According to an article in Elfinancierocr.com, "The agency also clarified that the companies can begin operating before the deadline to deliver the first phase of the network development plan".
Any natural or legal person assigned a frequency must now pay a fee.
This payment must be made regardless of whether the frequency is used or not.
"This includes, for example, security companies, public or private transportation fleets which use broadcasting services," informed Nacion.com. "Also required to pay are amateur radios and telecommunications companies."
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.
"But by Miley's own estimates, companies will require at least 6 more months to be ready to offer their services to the public, so consumers will enjoy competition in the mobile market somewhere around December 2011”, reported La Prensa Libre.
The regulatory body has not yet approved the tariffs for interconnection with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad.
The Telecommunications Superintendence (Sutel) published in the official newspaper the changes to the terms and conditions of the bid process but does not provide for Interconnection Reference Offer (IRO).
"The chairman of Sutel, George Miley, said the IRO will be ready at least 15 days before the 14th of December, date in which offers will be received. That deadline is Nov. 22nd," according to Nacion.com.
By not presenting the changes to the terms and conditions, Sutel has further delayed the process.
October 21st was the deadline for publication in the official journal for the corrections ordered by the Comptroller General of the Republic.
"Regulations require that changes be reported at least 15 days before receipt of offers, originally set for November 5th," according to the article in Nacion.com.
If the schedule is followed as expected, by September 2011 the mobile telephony concessions will be awarded.
Costa Rica's Telecommunications Regulator (SUTEL) has made public the invitation to tender for the cellular telephony frequencies.
The work schedule, if the process is not appealed, will contain the following key dates: 5 November to receive technical and economic offers, 3 December for the offers to begin being reviewed.
SUTEL (Costa Rica's Telecommunications Regulator) council members must find time to meet and review the final version of the terms and conditions.
Press coverage on the subject suggests that three of the SUTEL council's members have more important things on their plate.
According to a report from Mónica Cordero Sancho in Elfinancierocr.com, George Miley, SUTEL president, said on Wednesday that some of his colleagues had met but that they had not managed to finalize the document for approval.
The upcoming publication of the conditions for the opening up of telecommunications leads operators to request clearer rules.
Telecommunication companies have asked Costa Rica's Telecommunications Regulator (SUTEL) to provide greater clarity in several areas including procedures for installing Radio Bases, interfacing with networks belonging to the state-owned electricity and telecommunications provider (ICE), and microwave communication.
This week, the telecommunications superintendence (SUTEL) will publish preliminary bidding rules for opening the telephony market.
George Miley, president of the board at Sutel, explained that this document will be available at the website of the Public Services Authority (ARESEP) for an entire month.
Miley stated that “we won’t include strategic details such as a minimum bidding price, … the idea is that interested companies make additions and suggestions to the rules”.
Costa Rica committed to open its telecom market before February 5 when it signed DR-CAFTA.
A report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which analyzed telecommunications compliance, requested Costa Rica to urgently complete the opening process.
George Miley, president of the Costa Rican Telecommunications Superintendence, explained that the bidding rules were ready in December, but in order to continue the process, the Environment Ministry must still deliver the microwave frequencies. Such frequencies are used to send cellular signals between towers and linking them to the systems of each of the telecomm providers.
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.
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