Costa Rica's Internet service provision looks to be impeded by the firm refusal of state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) to offer its services to the commercial world. According to a recent report by the Public Services Regulating Authority, ICE provides Internet services to institutions that do not pay while denying it to those who are willing to do so. The report claims that if ICE provided its services to the general public, its revenues would increase and Internet prices would go down.
Even though the Public Services Regulatory Agency established a commercial Internet rate for ICE in April, the monopolistic company appears unwilling to buy the equipment necessary to offer commercial service nationwide. The only commercial provider is ICE's own subsidiary Radiografica Costarri-cense (RACSA), which has been plagued by problems with its Internet connections, and ICE is reluctant to enter into direct competition with a company within its own group.
ICE is already the provider for the public school system, government and ministries, which collectively owe the company some $42,400 in unpaid fees from April to June. The Regulatory Agency claims that if ICE sold commercial service based on its infrastructure already installed, it could have earned nearly $430,000 in revenues by now. If ICE were to compete with RACSA, ICE’s assigned Internet rate of $16 per month for unlimited hours would be pitched against $1 per hour currently charged by RACSA. By law, both companies would have to charge the same rate.
However, ICE has said that the Regulatory Agency's figures are inflated and has denied the company has sufficient capacity to compete directly with RACSA. Telecommunications manager Róger Echeverría said that equipment vital to ICE’s Internet infrastructure is on loan from network supplier Cisco Systems and software provider DataNet, and besides, it would be "illogical" for ICE to compete with its own subsidiary. He added that ICE had requested a commercial rate only to determine the feasibility of a full-blown investment in Internet infrastructure.
Mr Echeverria said that ICE’s current infrastructure is more than enough to handle its current public sector clients, but local newspaper La Nacion claims that a large investment is needed to replace the borrowed equipment and improve service to existing clients.
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