Costa Rica's Cabei to Select 3G Equipment Vendor for ICE
Costa Rica's state-owned telecoms monopoly ICE has agreed to let the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) choose the equipment vendor for deployment of a 3G network, local daily La Nacion quoted an ICE executive as saying.
ICE plans to acquire 1.5mn lines of WCDMA-based technology that it would roll out towards the end of 2008, ICE's assistant manager of telecoms Claudio Bermudez was quoted as saying.
While a final investment figure has not yet been calculated, it is estimated to cost around US$200mn.
Cabei will handle the process of selecting a vendor and buy the equipment. After the equipment acquisition has been made it will then rent the network to ICE, giving the telco the option to buy it from the development bank.
Previously ICE has directly contracted a vendor for infrastructure deployments and then rented it from the private company.
The process of selecting an equipment vendor has received considerable attention due to an investigation into allegations that members of French equipment Alcatel, now Alcatel-Lucent, paid bribes to ICE officials for a 2002 mobile infrastructure contract.
Posted to the site on 5th September 2007
