Costa Rica Finally Awards Delayed GSM Contract
Alcatel has signed a US$149 million contract with ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad), the incumbent telecommunications operator in Costa Rica, to provide a full turnkey GSM 1800/GPRS network nationwide. Alcatel's GSM 1800/GPRS network will support up to 400,000 lines and will overlay a previous D-AMPS network. This contract has been delayed since last year following complaints after Alcatel unexpectedly won a small initial infrastructure contract.
Alcatel will supply its Evolium solution which comprises a radio base station subsystem (BSS), a core network sub system (NSS) including a mobile switching center (MSC) and a home location register (HLR). Alcatel will also supply an Intelligent Network (IN) platform for value-added services and revenue-generating applications such as prepaid, voice mail service and a SMS-C.
"This contract with Alcatel represents one of the most significant milestones ever for the ICE group's history. It will allow us to benefit from a large variety of services and will pave the way to mobile telephony of the future. GSM, one of the most widely spread technologies in the world, will help us change our life styles", declared Pablo Cob, president of ICE."
Posted to the site on 26th March 2002
