ICE said the cell phone signals and sets, as well as the Internet, will suffer interference from a government decree to reassign radio frequencies that are now in the hands of the institution.
Last Friday, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET) issued a decree to release these links, and a large portion, are now held by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE).
According to the decree, the intent is to reallocate these bands in the most efficient way to include some in the recruitment of new cell phone companies.
For other companies to operate mobile networks, they need both wireless signal frequencies as microwave links to communicate their cellular towers. According to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), so far the only mobile operator in the country, the decree removes frequencies in a discriminatory manner.
The agency alleges that the Government declared non-exclusive use of the links, but did so with frequencies that are held by other individuals or legal entities.
Thus, according to the Institute, the reallocation of frequencies will generate a “high probability of interference” by other operators in their services.
In the opinion of the organization there were not enough studies to determine the reallocation of frequencies.
“Failure to comply with technical requirements will cause a chain of interference in several microwave links, causing disruption of ICE services and, in turn, services of other operators,” they said.
“It’s a hasty decision, the result of the serious mistakes made in the process of preparing the degree.” the statement said.
The competition to recruit new companies will make the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel) based on frequencies specified by the MINAET. Yesterday, authorities tried to talk to MINAET, but it was not possible.