Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad is evaluating the Salvadoran market to determine if there is an opportunity to establish itself as a new broadband operator.
The state telecommunications company already has a presence in Nicaragua, where in conjunction with the state company Enatrel, it operates the company Telecomunica, which provides internet and television services.
A plan is being worked on in Costa Rica to implement a broadband internet network for 2,500 educational centers in different areas of the country.
The proposal which is being worked on by the government and Fonatel is in the planning stage, and aims to develop a broadband internet network with different speeds and capacities, which would be defined according to the number of users in each educational center.
The only countries in America where mobile phone prices are still regulated are El Salvador and Costa Rica. It is no coincidence that these countries are among the last in the rankings for speed of mobile internet services.
EDITORIAL
And it is no coincidence that these two countries also suffer from the existence of the heaviest controlling bureaucracies in the Central American isthmus, with clear consequences for the slow adaptation to changes experienced by the global economy, particularly globalization.
"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
The IDB's Broadband Development Index places the country in the 3rd. place in Central America, 12th. in the Americas, and 48th. among the 63 countries in the global ranking.
The four pillars are defined, according to the broadband ecosystem (see Annex II). (1)
Public policy and strategic vision. (2) Strategic Regulation, (3) Infrastructure (measuring the access elements), and (4) Applications and Training (measuring the adoption and use).
From a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):
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 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.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, broadband access increases company productivity and allows access to more and better information helping decisions to be made efficiently and at less cost.
From a statement issued by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):
Companies that have adopted broadband operations have increased their productivity by 10 percent on average, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
The second tender planned for this year which would have allowed the entry of a fourth company into the phone market will not be completed.
According to the executive power, who took the decision to suspend the tender, there is not enough information available because the technical report of the Telecommunications Authority is "inconclusive" and contains figures which are out of date.
In Panama it is up to 5.12 Mbps, in Nicaragua 3.53, in Honduras 3.43, Guatemala 3.32, in El Salvador 3.10, and in Costa Rica up to 2.81 Mbps.
The data has been provided by Speedtest.net, which based on download speed controls made by million of users, maintains a ranking of 188 countries according to the average download speeds in Mbps over the past 30 days where the average distance between the client and the server is less than 300 miles.
There are five projects in Costa Rica attempting to set up truly fast internet networks, and all of them are hampered by bureaucracy.
An editorial in Elfinancierocr.com explains that in Costa Rica "the five projects designed to bring high speed internet to businesses and homes are stuck."
"... First of all, it begs the question, why have five projects that are so similar? The plans by Racsa, Jasec, ESPH, Curridabat, all offer an open network (available to all service providers) using optical fiber to connect households (known as Fibre To The Home or FTTH), while the ICE is planning to use fiber combined with copper to provide it's services. "
Costa Rica has $216 million to spend in bringing telephony and internet services to areas with no communication, a situation that causes clashes between the President and the Telecommunications Superintendency.
President Chinchilla asked the telecommunications regulator in Costa Rica (SUTEL), to award the projects to bring internet services to schools to the state telecommunications company (ICE) without a bidding process.
The multitude of paperwork and the Fondo Nacional de Telecomunicaciones are the obstacles preventing major progress in implementing fast internet services in Costa Rica.
"There is a significant increase (according to preliminary reports) in the number of broadband internet connections. This is despite the fact that there have been delays in major projects for the country and which could make us progress faster," said Rowland Espinoza, Deputy Minister of Telecommunications.
The road to sustainable human development passes inexorably thorough the digitization of national economies.
A book published by CEPAL entitled "Digital Economy for structural change and equality," reports on the profound differences between the Latin American countries with respect to the integration of new information technologies and telecommunications.
Communications currently being the engine of development, Latin America is moving at low speeds in a vehicle that is too costly.
An article in Elfinancierocr.com quotes the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, who highlights what all Latin Americans are suffering from: a brutal disadvantage in the availability of broadband connectivity, compared with developed countries.
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