Cable TV
Companies At War With CNFL And ICE
Work crews of the Compañía Nacional de
Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) have been issued orders
to remove all of the 1.700 light posts in
the downtown San José area as part of an
aggressive campaign by the power utility as
it continues to bury all services cables
underground.
For the most part all the electrical and
telephone cabling has already gone
underground following years of installing an
underground cable network.
However, a large part of the old cables are
still hanging from the posts and they
include cables by the television cable
companies.
Fructuoso Garrido, manager of distribution
for the CNFL, explained that work crews were
busy this weekend cutting down cables still
hanging on the posts in Barrio Amón as part
of the plan to clean up the neighbourhood.
According to Garrido, the CNFL had
issued an order to all cable companies to
remove all its cabling and that the posts
will come down.
A number of Amnet customers complained to
the cable company when they were without
service after CNFL crews followed their
orders of cutting down all current cabling
on the posts.
Garrido said that the war between the cable
companies and the CNFL was something sure to
happen, as the cable companies have not
complied with the order, charging that the
CNFL, which is part of the Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), is
forcing them out of the market with
excessive costs to run their cables and now
cutting them off all together.
With the opening of the telecommunications
market, cable companies, for instance, can
now also offer internet and other telephone
services over their cables, which according
to the cable companies, is not welcomed
competition for ICE.
The Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel)
- the recently created telcommunications
regulator - is expected to get involved as
it is requested to analyze each and every of
the complaints filed by the cable companies
against the CNFL and ICE.
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