Costa Rica Approves ICE Deployment of 300,000 GSM Lines

Costa Rica's comptroller general has approved the plans of state-run telecoms monopoly ICE to offer 300,000 new GSM mobile lines in January 2008, newspapers quoted ICE's telecoms assistant manager Claudio Bermudez as saying.

ICE signed a contract with Swedish telecoms equipment supplier Ericsson in mid-June to deploy the new lines, but needed the comptroller's consent to proceed with the sale.

With the new lines, ICE is considering introducing prepaid telephony for the first time in Costa Rica.

With the new lines, Bermudez estimates the country's mobile penetration will hit 43%. The number of available lines is limited in Costa Rica, with local press reporting that some 50,000 people are waiting to acquire an ICE mobile phone.

Posted to the site on 3rd September 2007