Costa Rica News – For any of us that have had the joy of working with ICE, Costa Rica’s government owned telecommunications entity, we a know how difficult they can be both with customer service and their service in general. I guess that is why they did not get the contract to install broadband in Costa Rica schools; overpriced and bad service.
Twenty different companies put in bids for Sutel’s tender that was in November. Claro and Telefonica are the winners for this, the third Fonatel tender in Costa Rica. The telecoms regulator Sutel was responsible for the bidding process.
Claro and Telefonica will be deploying the broadband connections in many rural community schools, in the northern part of Costa Rica, according to Sutel’s statement.
This tender includes five projects that will benefit some 40,000 students spread out over 500 schools in Guatuso, Los Chiles, Upala, Sarapiqui, and San Carlos. Telefonica will take charge of the two projects in Guatuso and Los Chiles and Claro will be in charge of the other three.
The investment in the five projects is expected to be $13.8 million, which will be provided by the National Telecommunications Fund (Fonatel). The process and funding of this initiative have caused a clash between President Chinchilla and the telecommunications regulator, Sutel.
The president hoped that the internet services could be brought to schools without a bidding process, while Sutel felt the Fonatel resources should be allocated in this way as it is the “most efficient, non-discriminatory and neutrally competitive” way.
