ICE remains sub par

Costa Rican telecoms regulator Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel) reported the network coverage of incumbent wireless operator ICE Celular, which offers its services under the Kolbi brand, remains unsatisfactory in certain areas, TeleGeography CommsUpdate reported.

Sutel studied ICE’s network coverage between October and November last year and found that 2G coverage on only six of the 35 routes analyzed met regulatory requirements. The 3G coverage was better, meeting the watchdog’s requirements on 14 of the routes checked.

Sutel found similar results in cities and villages, though the watchdog said ICE had surpassed minimum requirements for network coverage in the areas.

According to local newspaper Inside Costa Rica, Sutel director Glenn Fallas commented that “ICE has improved coverage in populated areas, but needs to improve significantly along the routes.”

ICE challenged Sutel’s report, saying that coverage failure was due to either a localized technical fault, or the methodology of the analysis.