Cell phone companies
get bid invitation today


The La Gaceta government newspaper is supposed to be carrying this morning the invitation to bid for cell telephone concessions.

The Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones said that the long awaited invitation instructs potential bidders to obtain the 200-page document that outlines the requirements and procedures for bidding.

At stake are three sets of frequencies that will allow the development of a cell telephone service. The requirements are strict. A bidder must show annual income of $450 million and 1.8 million telephone subscribers elsewhere. The firm also has to have five years experience in operating such a system and has to have experience in setting up a new system.

There are about a half dozen companies that fill the bill. They have 45 days to prepare the bid and submit it. A company may only win rights to one frequency set.

Casa Presidencial characterized what follows as a long and complex process. The Superintendencia has to evaluate the offers and any eventual contracts must be reviewed by the Contraloría de la República.

Casa Presidencial said the executive branch was counting on the good disposition of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, which now operates the telephones. Any new arrival will be a direct competitor, and the former telecom monopoly fought hard to make the auctioning of the spectrum as long and difficult as possible. There also is the possibility of prolonged court battles.

The Superintendencia is acting after the Sala IV constitutional court said that it must resolve the matter quickly.

In early August the high court gave public officials three months to award concessions for the frequencies. Specifically the Sala IV ordered the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones, the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad to coordinate their efforts so that the award of cell telephone concessions would take place in three months.

Companies will bid on one of three packages of spectrum. Concessions one and two each consist of 15 MHz in the 1800 MHz frequency and 15 MHz in the 1.9/2.1 GHz range, with uplink and downlink for a total of 60 MHz.

Concession three has three frequency bands, with 5 MHz in the 850 MHz range, 15 MHz in the 1800 MHz spectrum, and 10 MHz of 1.9/2.1.

The concession decisions will be the end of a long road that began in 1995 when the U.S.-based Millicom was forced to end cellular telephone service. The Sala IV determined that the new innovation infringed on the monopoly that was guaranteed to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. Millicom had been offering the cell service here since 1989. It took the government monopoly more than a year to resume the cell service.

Once before the government tried to open up the telephone industry to private companies. Riots ensued and the idea was abandoned. The current opening is due to the free trade treaty with the United States. Having lost its monopoly service, the government-owned Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad fears a loss of income. The fears are well grounded because local telephone service, including cell service, is offered at less than cost.

The government telecom company has been dogged by complaints of poor coverage, overloaded systems and other flaws, not to mention less than stellar customer service.

Nancy Grace show notes
case of missing U.S. citizen


CNN's Nancy Grace is publicizing the case of David Gimelfarb who disappeared a year ago after hiking in Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja.

A story about the case is on the CNN Web site. There is no indication if the story will make the television show.

There are no new leads in the case. CNN noted that two other men vanished in Guanacaste last year. Gimelfarb is from the Chicago, Illinois, area, and his parents have not given up.  Periodically there are reports that an individual resembling him has been seen.

Michael Dixon, a British tourist, and Craig Snell, an expat from Ostional, are the other two missing men. Snell vanished under suspicious circumstances from somewhere near his home in March 2009. Dixon vanished in Tamarindo last Oct. 18. His family, too, has been aggressive in keeping his name in the news.

Another U.S. citizen, Roger Peter Biennvennu, 64, has been missing since early July, according to the Judicial Investigating Organization. He lived in Barrio Quebradas, San Isidro de Peréz Zeledón.

3,000 volunteers to help clean up


Some 3,000 volunteers will clean up 50 locations during September as part of a national campaign run by the Asociación Terra Nostra with support form the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo and private companies.

The campaign is designed to raise consciousness among Costa Ricans about cleanups and conservation. Volunteers will be working along many of the rivers, in San Carlos, in Guanacaste, in Heredia, the Osa peninsula and in Manuel Antonio.

This is the second such national cleanup event. The first was last September with about 2,500 volunteers who picked up nearly 26,000 kilos of trash, some 57,200 pounds.

A.M. Costa Rica/Dennis Rogers