The second is GSM and truly  is lousy, but requires a more expensive phone that is more sexy, and everyone knows, women go for a guy with a sexy phone even if it does not work. The GSM system was installed by Alcatel a French company, apparently after they paid a few bribes to various government and ICE officials.  As a matter of fact, January marks the month for the trial of still another ex-president of Costa Rica who alledgedly accepted the chorizo (bribe).  Costa Rica seems to routinely send ex-presidents to jail, the last one just a few weeks ago!

So what is happening? If this topic interests you, read on!

ICE has been threatening to discontinue the TDMA system for a long time but has now backtracked.  This is because, as a result of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), they have lost their monopoly and now face the possibility of having competition, a dirty word for sure.

ICE’s president, Pedro Pablo Quirós stated that cancelling the TDMA service might give people the option to move to a competing network.  WOW!  Nothing gets by THAT guy!  Imagine anyone considering switching from ICE after so many years of superb customer service!  Why… the mind fairly boggles… but this is true.

He also states that customers currently using TDMA will be able to choose to stick with the service or move to the 3G when it is available in December and they will be able to keep their numbers.

That brings up the new Third Generation (3G) system rolling out next month with 950,000 lines. Well, it seems there are a few problems!

1. ICE is already hedging by complaining that “someone” is buying up all the good tower sites.  Imagine! Someone apparently got their hands on the list locations ICE needed and made deals with the owners of the land making ICE search for alternate spots and negotiate a purchase. Oh the PAIN. It seems clear ICE has not yet gotten clear on what it means to be in a free market!

and

2. When the 3G system does roll out, it will only have calling, text messaging, Internet (sort of) and voicemail. All the cool goodies will be rolled out “at a later date”.  Hmmmm!

So to all the many folks who have asked my advice on this topic, I would suggest you wait.

Wait to buy those new and much more expensive 3G phones.

Wait to see who else enters the market for cell service.

Wait to see if THIS system works better than the old 2G GSM system.  If ICE has not solved the tower issue, you might be a very unhappy camper.

Wait to see who DID buy up all those “good” tower locations and see what they will offer.

Wait for some sucker (maybe me) to buy a 3G and thoroughly and honestly review it… probably in six months IF the new goodies become available.

A lot of people think that now there will be wholesale changes now that ICE will face competition.  I am not so sure… at least in the short term.  Let’s examine what has been happening. If this topic interests you, read on!

First,  ICE states that it will close or at least restructure Radiográfica Costarricense  (RACSA), its 245 employees, and move all those  Internet customers from Racsa, its wholly owned subsidiary, to its own network, affecting maybe  80.000 users.  RACSA customers would therefore be serviced by ICE and the rates would be unified.  Sound easy?  Nothing is so easy in Costa Rica.  Two issues here… and this gets a little screwy, so take notes!  Remember that RACSA, while owned by ICE, runs its own show.  RACSA customer service and in fact their overall service has been improving over the past several years  to the point where I now tell people they are quite good! RACSA also sells only Internet services (high speed and modem) but not communications.

ICE, however, is renowned for just terrible customer service and doing everything even remotely possible to inconvenience the customer base.  This is something that should not surprise anyone as most monopolies never have to compete and therefore do not have to deal with the concept of making the customer happy.   Further, the technicians at RACSA are clearly more knowledgeable, or perhaps they are more accessible.  Hard to tell… but either way, they solve issues whereas ICE techs often blame the problem on you or deny there is a problem.

OK… so with the existing structure, RACSA can re-sell Internet  service (i.e. wholesale it) and they do.  Two of their customers are Cabletica and Amnet both distributors of cable TV services. Both of those companies sell cable TV with optional Internet (cable modem Internet).  You can buy cable TV with no Internet connectivity, but you can not buy Internet service from them without buying the cable TV service as well.

Now when ICE restructures RACSA, Amnet and CableTica customers will be moved to ICE.  ICE though, does not sell cable services so far as I know… so that means if I am getting this correctly,  AMNET and CableTica customers will have to all have new DSL installs, new equipment, etc.  UGH! This will effectively put Amnet and CableTica out of the Internet business.  Why do we (or at least I) care?  Because CableTica has  hands down the best customer services of all the companies in my opinion. Those businesses using cable modem service from either company may therefore have some serious issues ahead of them. But…. now we have this:

THIS week,  Amnet has announced they will cut the umbilical with RACSA and sell Internet services directly.  How?  They must, of course, buy services and connectivity directly from ICE and must also arrange to connect to the two underwater international cables in Parrita and Limon that connect to the Internet backbone.

Sounds simple… huh? Oh, did I forget to mention that Amnet also announced that they will compete with ICE for the cell phone business in Costa Rica?  Amnet was purchased last year by cellular service provider Millicom International Cellular, S.A. .  Gee!  I wonder if ICE is happy about that! I betcha not!

Nothing so far from CableTica.

So why am I writing all this? Well for those of you old enough to remember, once upon a time in the giant country to the North, there was a pretty GOOD communications monopoly called American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). Their service was just about as good as you an get anywhere.

Well one day, the mean old US government said, “NO MORE MONOPOLIES”  and broke apart AT&T.  The problem was that AT&T owned all the land, all the infrastructure, all the wiring, all the central offices… well you get the point. Startup company MCI just did not open the doors.  AT&T made life VERY difficult with major issues as regarded setting wholesale rates to providing access to all the above infrastructure. On the surface, they seemed cheerful enough about having the competition… but that was on the surface.  It took years and a zillion law suits and more zillions or dollars before MCI truly entered the US communications market.

ICE has kind made it clear they have no plans to go peacefully into the night…. so I asked myself, “I wonder who in Costa Rica  owns all the land, all the infrastructure, all the wiring, all the central offices, routers, contracts with backbone providers….”.  Things that make you go… hmmmm.

I have no idea how communiations and Internet services in Costa Rica will be affected.  Maybe everyone will just get along and overall, services and customer support will reign supreme with many happy and properous companies each providing these better services at lower prices.  Or not….?  Comment welcome~!

Final approval must come from the Comptroller (Costa Rica’s equivalent to the General Accounting Office) before the deal is finalized.  Huawei won in a bidding war against Sweden’s Ericcson and China rival ZTE Corporation

The 3G move will give mobile users access to high-end data applications on their phones, including high-speed interactive gaming and Internet access, prepaid video- localization, video, multimedia messaging, voice and data roaming, video conferencing, video streaming and other multimedia features. Apple’s popular iPhone uses the 3G technology. ICE has stated that the new lines and service will be available by the end of 2009, though I am skeptical of that. ICE ha a poor track record for meeting deadlines.

As everyone knows, the current GSM system is just horrible with crummy coverage and cut-off services everywhere. It also supports voice mail only in Spanish which annoys a lot of foreigners.

I am still unclear exactly what ICE bought for $235 million. Obviously the system itself, but I am also presuming praying that they are finally going to put up a ton of new towers as the coverage area for GSM is just horrendous!  ICE promises better coverage but….  Quien sabe?

I am also hoping that unlike the Alcatel deal (the company that installed the faulty GSM system while making a LOT of polititions and executives quite rich) this will be a clean deal… no payoffs.

The little i have heard of Huawei has all been good and they certainly have the experince and expertise to get it done.  Now… if ICE can just let them do it….

Some background for readers. There are two cellular systems here, TDMA being the oldest and the only one the works pretty much all of the time, and the GSM system, that should work better, but does not. In fact, it works poorly at best. Callers often get the “Try again later” message and even when there is cell service, connections are not always stable. In general, TDMA is the way to go though there are a few locations (Dominical, Nosara and Samara come to mind) where the only system that works well is a GSM phone. So you want a TDMA phone? Interestingly, there are no more new TDMA phones available in Costa Rica. Any you buy are reconditioned. Besides… there are no phones lines available anyway. Sheesh!

The plan to discontinue the TDMA system was based on ICE planned upgrading of the current GSM system to the Third Generation GSM known as 3G, a vastly superior communications system (and part of Apple’s new iPhone configuration). It is faster and offers a ton of options including Internet. Of course future success would also be based on having the towers available, etc… but that is a different story.

In any case, ICE’s plans were basically correct and once installed and the tower location issues fixed, it should have allowed for the discontinuation of TDMA and offered users a fine, though more costly, solution. Of course THAT was before ICE sent out the bids to install the new 3G system.

The bids went out and only one company bid the project, Huawei Technologies. Well that would be fine as Huawei is most certainly a capable business partner, but ICE planned a budget of $224 million and Huawei submitted a bid of $580 million. Oops! Did someone make a really big error in calculation? As ICE has a history of poor planning, this would not be a really big surprise. In fact, it appears that (though I cannot confirm this), ICE changed the bid specs in June, 2008 adding 500 terminals to the specs but expecting no increase in cost. Huh? I admit to not knowing what is a terminal… but adding 500 of anything would seem to me to be an additional expense that needed to be considered.

Of the six bidders, FIVE (like the Ericsson de Costa Rica (current provider of one of the country’s two GSM networks), Continuex S.A. (distributor of Samsung in Costa Rica, ZTE Corp. and Nokia Siemens Network) decided not to bid citing fears of not being able to deliver to ICE’s specs.

So now what? Who knows?? The $356 million difference is huge and ICE clearly will have to go back to the planning stage. It seems unlikely they will or even can accept Huawei’s bid. They do not have the funding… or maybe they do!

Just this week, ICE announced that they wish to expand services to other Central American countries. Of course those of you who are skeptics might suggest that ICE put its own house in order before planning such an expansion…. the more pragmatic might just suggest ICE forego expansion and use THAT money to get a good funcional and working GSM system.

As always… more shall be revealed!

Here is her email, and if the topic interests you (and you can deal with my rant)… read on!

My family plans to relocate to Costa Rica, and I would like to know what your thoughts are regarding the recent activity by the Costa Rican Congress ending it’s 84 year old insurance, and telecom monopoly (CAFTA). How do you think this is going to effect the citizens of Costa Rica that have enjoyed a universal health care system, and what do you think the implications are for Americans residig in Costa Rica, that have been able to partake in this system?.

From the tone of your comment, and I get a LOT of these emails/comments, you are one of those believing anything having to do with CAFTA and the big bad horrible USA must be bad for everyone else. If I am wrong, I apologize in advance.

But you got some words right.. just not the facts which are more obscure… so let me explain.

1. The telecom monopoly, like the vast majority of monopolies is a huge, cost wasting enterprise, employing tens of thousands of workers, and is roughly 7 years behind the rest of the world in providing the things over which they have responsibility (technology).

In addition, as with most monopolies it gives awful customer service at ridiculous prices (for Internet and power, not for cell service). The “high speed Internet”, when it DOES work, is painfully slow, and the vast majority of Costa Ricans have access only to dial-up modem service in their homes. It has held the country back economically. strategically, and educationally.

The cell rates ARE well priced, but of the two systems here, the only one that works at ALL is the old TDMA system popular in the USA back in the 1990s. It works great!!

The “new” GSM system is absolutely horrible, works at best only 90% of the time and does not work at all in many locations… yet the monopoly is telling many, many thousands of Ticos to turn in their old working cell phones and buy the new GSM phones. For many Tico families, this is a MAJOR expense. Gotta LOVE those monopolies! In 2009, they will discontinue the only system that works.

This telecom also controls the electric power. Last year we went days and weeks suffering brownouts and blackouts. This was the result of an astonishing lack of simple population planning, and numerous families and businesses suffered greatly. The president had to spend a TON of money buying emergency equipment just to keep the lights lit.

In the history of the world, there have been good monopolies I am sure, but the vast majority provided lousy customer service, a crummy product, at unfair prices… This is why monopolies were outlawed in the USA about 50 years ago.

This model fits here… because there is no competition, they do as they please while giving the customers the one finger salute.

Insurance

You wrote …”the recent activity by the Costa Rican Congress ending it’s 84 year old insurance… monopoly” and “How do you think this is going to effect the citizens of Costa Rica that have enjoyed a universal health care system”

You have things pretty mixed up. First, the congress had absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was voted through by referendum…and was voted on by all Costa Ricans. The PEOPLE passed this treaty… not the congress. Hmmm. I wonder if the overwhelmingly super service provide by their telcom monopoly had anything to do with that vote!

After CAFTA passed, the congress had to alter existing laws to bring them into concordance with the terms of CAFTA that the PEOPLE OF COSTA RICA approved.

This is something that sorta grinds me in emails I receive… the perceived arrogance of those who think THEY know more than the Costa Rican people. I am not saying the writer said or implied this, but others have many times. The Costa Rican people are bright, intelligent, well educated people and right or wrong, they made their will known. Time will tell if it was a good decision, but I can assure you that never in my life have I EVER seen a more informed public on a topic up for referendum. Costa Rica could give civics lessons to any country in the world after the manner in which they handled the TLC (CAFTA).

So now there will be other insurance companies offering policies with wider coverages with larger groups and therefore possibly lower rates. There are dozens of huge international insurers who can now legally sell their products to those of us who live in Costa Rica. Now, perhaps a 50 year old women driver will not have to pay $1,400 per year for car insurance the same as her 19 year old son.

Oh… that’s right! There IS no compulsory insurance so only a very few people ever buy insurance because it can represent more than 10% of their annual income! Enjoy your next trip here! Drive defensively!

Your email implies that the “Universal Health Care” is going away. It is not. THE CCSS (CAJA) is alive and well. Good thing as my wife works for a CCSS hospital!

Oh… and to be clear… “Universal Health Care” is just socialized medicine… and just as in Sweden, Canada, England and other places, the system does not work for anyone except the very poor and seldom works well for them. Lines are huge. Several hours is common at my wife’s hospital. Generic medicine are prescribed to save money, but sadly they are purchased from a variety of countries and there is no quality control and therefore many medicines just do not work. I can vouch personally that that is true.

Waits for a doctors visit can take months and often DO. Waits for major surgery or even some minor surgeries can take years. The poor suffer with this crap as they have to… same as they will soon in the USA. Everyone else buys private insurance so they can see the doctor of their choice at the hospital of their choice a the time of their choice. For those of you who are “Universal Health Care” fans… I wish you well. It looks great on paper, but I have yet to see it work well. I can assure any middle class Gringo tht moves here that you will eventually get CAJA and buy private insurance in case you get sick.

So what do I think the implications are for Americans residing in Costa Rica, that have been able to partake in this system?. Not much… Nothing has changed, just more offerings and some of those are years away. If they use CAJA now, they will continue to use CAJA. If they buy private insurance now, they will soon have other options and perhaps better prices. If they are tired of paying car insurance as though they were an 18 year old male overdosed on testosterone… they will likely be happy with premiums that reflect their age, driving history and experience! Someone may come in and actually offer true hi speed Internet for less than $80 per month WITH reliable service and connections that actually do not die every day at 3 PM. Note I am referring here to TRUE high speed as you would find in most developed countries.

Costa Ricans will benefit I think by better services lower prices (or more for the money they do pay).

Even now, with the arrival of those big awful businesses from the bad ole USA, (like Walmart), customer service policies are changing country wide! Why imagine a Tico who can actually exchange a brand new and very costly TV (but one that was totally DOA right out of the box), instead of having to wait 3-4 months while it gets returned to the factory in Korea for repair!

Can you imagine?

And again… if I misread your email, I apologize… but that’s the problem with email… no visual or aural clues to clarify.  Also, enough others have written about how they hate the USA, big business, Bush, Obama, and God that I am just getting fed up with it.  As a famous bird once sang… Get Over It.

To provide a bit of background for newcomers, visitors and tourists, there are currently two cell phone systems here in Costa Rica. The first, TDMA , often referred to as “the old system” and GSM, “the new system”. New is better, right? Often true, but in this case… totally not true.

The GSM system was installed some years ago by Alcatel, a French company under contract to ICE the government-run monopoly that controls all telecommunications in Costa Rica. Apparently not satisfied with just trying to win this huge contract in a competitive manner, Alcatel decided to spend some cash in order to bribe some key decision makers in ICE and in the Costa Rican government. About $11 million as I recall! This was also distributed to at least two and probably three ex-Presidents of Costa Rica, two of whom spent some time in prison for accepting these bribes, and a third who is currently hiding out in Switzerland, unable and apparently unwilling to return to Costa Rica for fear of also passing a few hours in the slammer.

This is important to know because the GSM system installed by Alcatel simply did not and still does not work well at all… and it will soon be the only system available.

Recently, ICE announced, in their incredible wisdom, plans to phase out the TDMA system over a three year period beginning in 2009. I am presuming that their intentions are good, pehaps wanting to update and maintain a more current technology. I would support this decision enthusiastically if only the GSM system worked! It does not.

There are huge areas where the GSM system simply does not work and far more areas where it just works poorly. I live and work midway between San Jose and the San Jose airport, and a GSM phone will not work in the home or office. I need to walk down the road 200-300 yards to get service. Many parts of Santa Ana, Urica, and other populous suburbs of San Jose have spotty coverage at BEST!

Even if you are lucky to be in a zone that does have coverage, you are often told that you cannot connect or are told to place your call later. I have lost count of the times I have called my son only to hear that service is not available. This does not mean he is out of service zone; it means the stupid system cannot process the call. During rush hour or bad weather, just forget calling anyone or receiving calls. Theoretically, GSM phones can be set up via Bluetooth to provide Internet access. Internet is offered as a costly service on GSM phones. I tried it and the service is terrible, often not working at all.

The Southern Zone (near the Panama border) has fine TDMA coverage but crummy GSM coverage. As many people use their cell phones as the only form of communication, when the TDMA system shuts down, they will be without communications. Remember it can take years to get a land line installed, so mobile communications is often the only option.

I think by now you get the point. GSM is not a good solution!

So how does this affect Ticos? It screws them of course!

ICE has announced that they want those TDMA phones back so they can be recycled. Good idea. So that means every person who is currently using TDMA must go out and buy a new GSM phone and return their old one. But… GSM phones are not cheap here. All are sold at retail. Buyers could easily have to pony up $300 or more for a new (basic) GSM phone. Some readers might think that $300 is not too bad, but you must consider that that is more than the entire monthly income for hundreds of thousands of Tico households! To place this in perspective, if you currently earn $60,000 per year in the USA, you would need to shell out $5,000 for a cell phone! That is a big expense and this will most assuredly be a burden on low and even middle income families. I am guessing that this will leave many low income families completely without communications. That, or they will buy on credit further exacerbating the huge outstanding credit problems in CR.

Another problem! Costa Rica is now becoming home to more and more foreigners who do not speak the language. The voice mail system on the GSM phones is not available in any language other than Spanish. Now I admit to not feeling real bad about this as it is my opinion that if you are going to live in a Latin country, you must learn the language! However few foreigners arrive here already speaking Spanish, and a cell phone really is a necessity.

All and all, this is a bad idea that helps nobody except the cell phone retailers and the credit card companies. It will hurt a lot of low income families. There should be a better plan.

Then, my mind starts thinking… “After so many years in Costa Rica, when has ICE (our friendly local telecommunications monopoly) EVER gotten something right the first time!”. So I reach over to the bed side table and make a test phone call.

Sure enough, ICE has done it AGAIN! They switched to the new calling plan 24 hours early!!!! I have web sites to update, both my customers and my own… notification calls… all originally scheduled for tomorrow morning. Sheesh!

This is NOT good and I kissed off all plans for a little extra z-time with ML.

Why in the WORLD would I ever presume that the employees at ICE could tell time?? I LIVE here. I KNOW to trust NOTHING that ICE says. I hear Bugs Bunny yelling to me…. “Whatta maroon!”, and he is right. To all of us who live here, we know that ICE is like a United States lawyer! If their (its?) lips are moving, it is a lie!

I occasionally lapse like this, and later figure I have the intelligence of a radish. Here I am writing a blog that a ton of people depend on for accuracy…

…But now I am thinking maybe it was ME who made an error, so I go check the ICE web site, download the FAQ and announcement .PDF files (available in last week’s Post if you wish to verify), and sure enough, there it is:

1. What is the established date for the change in numeration?
On Thursday, March 20, 2008.

2. At what time will the change in numeration take place?
The change has been programmed to take place at midnight of March 20, 2008.

Liar Liar pants on fire…. those clever souls programmed it to take place at midnight but on March 19, 2008. Last Night!

The good news is that apparently the new system DOES work OK, so anyone reading this today, just put in place any plans made for tomorrow morning. If you dial wrong, you get a high speed Ricky Ricardo message telling you the new system. Helpful only if you speak Ricky!

For those reading this who plan to move here someday, get used to this crap now… and if you are a Type A, get therapy before arriving.

For those of you living here and now laughing at me (and wondering whatever possessed me to trust an announcement by ICE) , yeah yeah and the same to you!

If you fall into either of the above categories, by all means read on!

Basically, the change is pretty simple. If you are calling any cell phone number, you must now dial 8 first. If you are dialing to any landline phone (home, office etc.) you must first dial 2.

How do you know if a number belongs to a cell phone or is a land line? Easy! All cell phones begin with 3, 8, or 9 (NOT 900 numbers though!)

Anything else is a land line.

Examples:

From Costa Rica dialing to a cell phone, you will dial: 8-xxx-xxxx where xxx-xxxx is the current cell phone number.

From Costa Rica dialing to a land line phone, you will dial: 2-xxx-xxxx where xxx-xxxx is the current land line phone number.

From outside Costa Rica, you will dial your international access code (in the US that would be 011) then the NEW dialing codes, then the number.

Example: From the USA calling a Costa Rica land Line, you will dial 011-506-2-xxx-xxxx and to a Costa Rica cell phone, you would dial 011-506-8-xxx-xxxx.

Now I am sure this is going to cause vast confusion, but if ICE does their job, and they appear to doing so, this should go smoothly.

800 numbers (free) and 900 number (the ones that cost YOU to dial) are unaffected.

The ICE three digit service numbers (113, 115, 199, 193 etc) likewise remain unchanged.

Want more info?

Check out these links (in English)

http://www.grupoice.com/esp/temas/camp/2_8_dig/index_eng.htm

and

http://www.grupoice.com/esp/temas/camp/2_8_dig/doc/preg_frecuentes_7_8_dig_eng.pdf

If you are doing business in Costa Rica, you need to get on the stick to get business cards, stationery, and web sites changed.

If you are from another country doing business here, or if you have family here and need make calls into Costa Rica, you should notify family and employees of these changes.

Today the citizens of Costa Rica go to the polls to vote for or against approval of the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) or in English, the Free Trade Agreement with the USA.

Copies of the TLC are currently available online, but only the brave need download and read entirely this document. It is mammoth and confusing and requires a huge amount of cross referencing to other places within the document. I admit that I tried, got through maybe 30% of it, then spent a little more time looking only for certain things like the effect on ICE (communications) and insurance. Thus here is my disclaimer that I am not an expert.

This is the first public referendum in the history of Costa Rica, and I will say that I am very impressed! They did this right and all Costa Ricans should be very proud of themselves and their country.

There have been debates, presentations and countless meetings given almost daily by both sides in all parts of Costa Rica. What has to be clear to all who live here is that any Costa Rican who wanted to learn about this document has had almost unlimited resources at their disposal to do so. The point is… if you wanted to learn, you could.

Some did. Some did not. Here is what I found.

For the past month, I have talked with a LOT of Ticos and a fair number of North Americans about their feelings on the TLC. I have come to the conclusion that people generally fit into three categories only two of which can vote.

Category One – Ticos

They are currently employees of CAJA (Social Security), ICE (communications) or the INS (insurance) all groups currently enjoying a monopoly in their area. In general, few monopolies in history have worked for the benefit of those who use their services. The last and perhaps only monopoly that I remember in my life that seemed to work pretty well was the old AT&T / Bell Labs group.

ICE has a jillion employees and I know several well enough to get a what I think is a straight answer. The people I spoke with privately support the TLC while publicly they claim it is terrible. I believe this is due to pressure from the unions and a few co-workers. I have also noticed that the ICE employees who are most competent were almost 100% for the TLC, probably understanding that once Costa Rica opened up, the competent workers would be in demand and would receive higher pay and better benefits like those currently working at Intel, Merck, etc. I am sort of wondering if Intel will even stay here if the TLC does not pass. Its failure to pass last year was the main reason given why they did not build their second huge facility here that would have employees many hundreds of Ticos.

When I ask why they are against the TLC, they give some of the most outrageous responses you can imagine! I have heard about the US Army bases that will open here. How Costa Rica will now have factories making guns and munitions. How Coco Island will become part of the USA. You simply cannot believe the horsepucky some of these folks believe. Sadly, my wife, having worked for CAJA for 32 years brings home these yarns, and because these tales come from folks she has known forever and trusts, she believes (some of) that crap.

Category Two – Ticos

Encompasses all those not working in the above institutions and those not closely related to employees of those companies. The vasy majority  are for the TLC. They either have read and debunked for themselves all the huge number of exaggerations or outright lies spread by the TLC contras, or they have actually gone the the meetings and forums to hear both sides.

Sadly, there may not be enough of these informed citizens to make an impact.

Asking why they are for or against gets a lot of replies. Most have reasons tied to their jobs or family businesses. Others are more pragmatic saying that while they are not thrilled with the TLC, it is probably best for the country and without it, Costa Rica may suffer irreparably. This is actually MY viewpoint on it.

Category Three – North Americans

Here I say North American but I really mean Gringos – US Expats.

There are really a fairly large number of US expats here who apparently just plain hate the United States. They think anything tied to the US government cannot be good, only serves business and that if the US is doing anything, it will be because they want to screw another country. The Bush administration has perhaps exacerbated the issue as his management of international relations is suspect, whether good or bad. This is probably deserved, but for some of these folks, it is clear that the sitting president is irrelevant. They just despise their country. Go figure.

When I ask them what part of the TLC offends them or they think is bad for CR, the answer is “ALL OF IT!”, which is of course nonsense. They have read not a word.  There are also a fair number of ex-military but I only know one and he is pretty pro USA in all matters.  He too admitted he had not read the document.

There are also a large number of liberals here, and they seem to fall into two groups.

Group One chants the mantra “we hate George Bush and so ANYTHING he is connected with is bad by default”. Group Two also hates Bush, but they sort of seem to take Bush out of the equation and form opinions that are at least based on some research.  A couple actually KNEW what was in the TLC.  Sadly, they too seldom can state exactly what it is they do not like (or like!) about the TLC. The good thing about both these groups is that they do not believe the malarkey spread by the TLC contras.

More liberals than conservatives have actually read ANY of the TLC document.

I also spoke to one two NON Costa Ricans (Latinos)  who are praying CR does not approve TLC. Their countries might well enjoy a windfall if the TLC fails. One less competitor!

I guess tomorrow we will have an answer. If the TLC fails, I think a host of bad things could come to pass.

Most assuredly the US will soon abandon the Caribbean accord signed many years ago that protects the signatories from disastrous import duties and provides a lot of benefits. There is simply no reason I can see to have both accords … but who knows? If that happens, it could be disastrous to Costa Rican exports…  though who knows what CR’s new relationship with communist China will bring. Those (6 billion or so?) Chinese can eat a lot of bananas and drink a ton of coffee I betcha.

If he TLC passes, it might also not go so good. Certainly heath care and insurance will improve greatly and costs will decrease while coverage may well increase.

ICE and communications though… UGH!  This is what a lot of people want…changes in communications and utilities.  Well that may not fair so well. Remember after AT&T was split up? They had to sell lines, space, service, routes… to MCI. It did NOT go smoothly as I recall and THAT was with the US federal court serving as a watchdog.

Here, there would be no such supervision. Ugh.

Tomorrow!

Many locations are important population centers like parts of Curridabat, Tibás, Heredia and Cartago. S anto Domingo de Heredia had just FIVE connections remaining.

Outside the Central Valley, there are the same issues in Ciudad Quesada (San Carlos), Liberia, Nicoya, Santa Cruz and Jacó. In several areas, NO connections remain, and people are now faced with a waiting list similar to the ever-popular bi-annual cell phone fiasco. ICE in Tibás states there are no services because the central station is saturated and because there are modems no available. HUH? There simply are no more connections in those central offices AND even if there were, there are no routers!

So now ICE has to go to the Contraloría (the bean counters for the Republic) and ask for money to expand the system that should have been expanded 4-5 years ago but was not because they did not ask for the money nor make a case for expanding these services that are strategically critical to Costa Rica and its development.

Seems like every day or so, we have ICE telling us “NO TLC” (free trade agreement) and ICE employees marching in parades to demonstrate that “Costa Rica don’t need no Stinking TLC”. The parade was probably lead by the guy who heads strategic planning.

So tell me if I am wrong here. If YOU were a monopoly charged with providing electricty and communications services to this country, and you did not want foreign competition to come in and clean your clock, would it not make sense to provide the best available services to those voters who will soon decide the fate of the TLC?

But no… I guess not!

Instead we have graft, lousy or non-existent cell phone service and no cell phone lines, rolling electrical blackouts affecting the entire country, and (now) no capacity to expand those Internet service that affect world wide communications and the growth and development of this nation!

I have stayed out of this TLC thing as 1. I do not fully understand all of its implications for Costa Rica and 2. I frankly think ALL foreigners, legal or not, are guests and truly have no right to stick their noses in these issues unless they are actually citizens and must (by law).

That said, I sure am wondering when the Costa Rican people will tire of taking it in the shorts from ICE, CAJA and the rest of the monopolies that exist here.