In Costa Rica, the Omar Dengo Foundation is bidding for the provisioning of Internet connectivity and security/intelligence services at the edge of the network of educational centers, under the on-demand consumption modality.
Costa Rican Government Purchase 2021PP-000001-FOD:
"The required technological service, which has been named Bicentennial Educational Network, consists of a contract whose scope is limited to the provisioning of Internet connectivity and security/intelligence at the edge of the network of educational centers. The network edge is understood as the connection point between the educational center and the ISP.
The lack of proper infrastructure and the lack of allocation of radio spectrum are some of the reasons why it is difficult for telecommunications companies to improve Internet connection or lower prices for services.
Internet operators in Costa Rica face adversities to improve service and provide better prices to consumers, including the deficit of appropriate infrastructure.
The percentage of the population with Internet access in Central America increased 17% between 2016 and 2018, increasing from 44% to 61%.
Data from the report "Internet in Central America 2018", compiled by the Commercial Trade Area of CentralAmericaData:
Currently, Costa Rica is the Central American country with the highest proportion of households with Internet access, with 77% of the total, followed by Panama with 67% and Honduras with 31%.
The Superintendency of Telecommunications in Costa Rica is calling a tender to develop infrastructure for internet and mobile telephony services in 24 indigenous territories in the country.
The Sutel will receive technical and economic offers from telecommunications companies interested in developing the project up until May 31, and it will analyze the bids and award the project within a period of 45 working days.
In Costa Rica a tender is being launched for the implementation of 100 MB of wireless internet access in parks, plazas, train stations and other public spaces.
$45 million will be invested in the project, and the aim is to connect 985 wireless access points in 360 districts of the country's 82 cantons, including 62 public libraries, 28 train stations and 7 civic centers for peace.The delivery of offers is scheduled for November 2017.Seedetails of the tender.
The Akamai report for the fourth quarter of 2016, notes that compared to the previous quarter, there was an increase of 10% on the average internet connection speed in Panama and a reduction of 1.2% in Costa Rica.
Although average internetaccess speed (IPv4) remains very low compared to otherLatin Americancountriesand other regions, the "Akamai State of the Internet IVQ 2016" report, states that both countries saw increases compared to the same quarter of 2015. Costa Rica registered an interannual increase of 15%, while in Panama the interannual increase was 47%.
A report by Akamai highlights an 8.4% drop in the average connection speed in Costa Rica in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
Between late 2014 and June this year, Costa Rica fell 20 positions in the ranking of broadband Internet, surpassing only Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela. Panama recorded a slight growth of 1% in the period in question, while Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, did not even figure in the report.
"In 2001, Costa Rica was near the top of the list of countries with the best connections together with powers such as South Korea".
Now, the State of the Internet report, by Akamai Technologies, reveals that from 2014 to 2015, Costa Rica continued to lose position in the global ranking of average connection speed, and from a poor 94th place has become worse, listed at 102, according to an article on Nacion.com
Competitiveness in the production of goods and services is directly dependent on the adoption of digital technologies, meaning that having connectivity is vital.
The World Bank is analyzing the impact of the internet and mobile telephony in economic development and the "digital dividend" generated by improving economies in general and the business sector in particular, and its productivity through digital technologies.
In Costa Rica contracts have been awarded to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and Claro to provide telephony and broadband Internet services in six cantons in the south of the country.
The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) will be responsible for developing projects in Buenos Aires, Osa, Corredores, Coto Brus and Golfito. Meanwhile Claro de Costa Rica is in charge of projects in the area of Perez Zeledon.
The country's loss of competitiveness because of the deterioration of basic infrastructure development, is replicated in the case of the internet where average speeds are only 2.8 Mbps, far from the world average and below that of most countries in the region.
Costa Rica stands out in Central America for the quality and volume of goods and services related to technology which it produces and exports.
While in other countries there are a greater variety of packages and lower prices than those offered in Costa Rica, lack of modernization of networks and costs are preventing operators from improving their services.
At present, only 56% of the population has internet access and of this total 80% use services with download speeds of 1 Mbps, 10% with 2 Mbps and less than 1% use download services with over 10 Mbps.
The Superintendency of Telecommunications in Costa Rica is putting out to tender the service to provide access to Fixed Voice and Broadband Internet Services in the south of the country.
SUTEL-BNCR Competition No. 010-2014
Contract to provide access to Fixed Voice and Broadband Internet Services to all communities in the districts of Biolley, Brunka, Buenos Aires, Chánguena, Colinas, Pilas, Potrero Grande and Volcan, in the canton of Buenos Aires, Puntarenas province and the provision of these services to Public Service Delivery Centers located in these communities, with support from the National Telecommunications Fund.
Imbalances in the penetration of ICT services have created a significant gap allowing to continue to increase investment and the volume of resources allocated to broadband and the sector in general.
From the Executive Summary of a report by the CAF entitled "Expansion of Regional Infrastructure for Internet Interconnection Traffic in Latin America":
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