70.000 Still Waiting For A
Home Phone In Costa Rica
Although much has been written and talked
about the problems faced by cellular
telephone customers in Costa Rica, there is
one group that has gotten little attention;
those unfortunate to not have a telephone in
their home.
The number of clients waiting for a "línea
de teléfono fijo" - a land line - is now
70.000 who are patiently waiting for the
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE) to get around to them.
Some have been waiting for years.
If we take a look at some of the numbers
they are astonishing. In 2006 there 73.000
people waiting for a land line, today,
almost four years later, there 70.469
requests still to be processed by ICE.
However, ICE is not saying much, only to say
that there are areas with more demand than
others and some of those areas are outlying
areas where the infrastructure has still to
catch up.
These areas are typically rural areas or
small communities where it is too expensive
to get there with copper wires, while other
areas are in new residential developments in
San José and other Central Valley
communities.
One example quoted by the daily La Nación is
the Concepción de San Rafael de Heredia,
only 12 kilometres from San José where a
family has six years waiting on the
telephone man to show up.
The report says that ICE has responded by
saying they have been working in the area in
the last three years and will soon have
everyone connected.
Not having a telephone line in the home, for
many, also means no internet.
ICE provides ADSL internet services through
it fixed telephone lines. No telephone, no
internet. In many cases, there is no cable
television, with an internet connection,
either.
Currently there 1.500.043 fixed telephone
line connections in place, translating to 32
connections per every 100 inhabitants.
The report Informe de Evaluación 2009 del
Ministerio de Planificación (Mideplan)
indicates that to be the number of
connections in 2007, meaning nothing has
changed since.
Jaime Palermo, director Comercial for ICE,
justifies by saying the demand has been
growing and that has been the reason for the
high number of people waiting. ICE just
can't keep up with the demand, the director
explained.
Palermo added that ICE has been installing
some 70.000 connections a year and
recognizes that the institution has to make
additional investments to keep up with the
pace of the growth in demand.
Palermo explained that in rural areas ICE
has been installing wireless connections and
in some areas fibre optic is being used in
place of copper. Fibre optics allows for
connections over greater distances than
copper and also wide band internet.
One of the reasons possibly why ICE has not
been focusing heavily on fixed line
installation is the increasing demand for
cellular phones.
More and more each day many opt for a
cellular phone than a home phone.
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