Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía
y Seguridad Pública photo

Cell phone use predicted
to skyrocket with new firms


(Sept.1, 2010) Costa Rica's telecommunications market offers opportunities with its new liberalization, opening the door for competition across all segments and boosting mobile penetration to 136 percent by 2015 with prepaid subscriptions, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

The report, "Costa Rica: Liberalization Will More Than Double Mobile Subscribers by 2015," offers a precise profile of the country's telecommunications, media, and technology sectors based on proprietary data from the firm's research. It provides detailed competitive analysis of both the fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares of technologies and services, and monitors the introduction and spread of new technologies,said the company.

Costa Rica is the last country in Latin America to liberalize its telecommunications industry. Now, the regulator in Costa Rica has been quite busy with the liberalization of fixed and mobile services taking place. "Costa Rica is auctioning three mobile licenses over the next few months, and the process is expected to be completed before year end," said Jose Magana, senior analyst at Pyramid Research. "New regulation includes number portability and infrastructure sharing."

"Mobile penetration of the population closed at 52 percent in 2009, one of the lowest rates in Latin America and not consistent with the income level of the population," said Magana. "We forecast that after liberalization, mobile penetration will advance to 136 percent by 2015 with prepaid subscriptions accounting for 79 percent of the total, and that mobile revenue will advance to $831 million by 2015 from $603 million in 2009, with gains coming mostly from data services, such as mobile broadband."

Due to the competitiveness of the new liberalized market and the attractiveness of mobile data services, 3G handsets will quickly gain share in the total base, even ahead of Costa Rica's Central American peers. By 2015, 40 percent of all handsets will be 3G. "The lack of subsidies in Costa Rica make replacement of handsets very expensive for subscribers, but we forecast that competition will boost the adoption of advanced handsets, particularly among the high-end segment," added Magana.

The report was prepared before telecom officials in Costa Rica said Aug.31 that the concession of spectrums for cell companies might not be finalized for a year, if then.

The report is priced at $990. Readers may download an excerpt of this report HERE!

Quakes in Southern zone
come in bunches


September started off with three moderate earthquakes in the vicinity of Buenos Aires de Puntarenas.

The first was at 7:23 a.m. Wednesday. Another followed at 8:19 a.m. and the third was at 9:58 a.m. The quakes were along the same local fault that generated two quakes in August. The strongest was Friday with a magnitude of 3.7. The quakes Wednesday were 3.3, 2.7 and 3.1, said the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica.

The observatory also reported Wednesday that during August there were 155 quakes in the same general area. Only seven were strong enough to be felt by humans, it said.

The strongst was a magnitude 5 Aug. 15 southwest of Uvita.

Another local artist has
show at Hidden Garden


"Extraordinary Talent" premieres Saturday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., as Guanacaste Costa Rican artist Juan Carlos Ruiz opens his exhibit at the Hidden Garden Art Gallery. With his impressionistic style, Ruiz combines elements of different worlds: the natural and the artificial, nature and civilization, to create a unique dimension to his artworks, gallery operators said. Ruiz studied with Juan Carlos Meana of the Universidad de Vigo de Pontevedra in Spain and has a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the Universidad de Costa Rica.

Gallery owner Greg Golojuch said he is thrilled with the talented artists that continue to join the gallery, now the largest in Guanacaste, with over 300 artworks comprised by more than 50 artists and that he will continue to strive to launch new exhibitions twice per month.

The gallery is five kilometers west of the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia on highway 21, and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 to 3.

Raid in Playas del Coco
turns up drug smorgasbord


Investigators detained a man and a woman Wednesday in a raid in Playas del Coco. Confiscated were ecstasy pills, hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.

Judicial police said that the man was 31 and a citizen of Belgium. The Costa Rican woman, 26, also was detained, they said. The man is believed to be a businessman in the Pacific beach community and the woman is his companion.

Agents said they confiscated 71 ecstasy pills, a kilo of hydroponically produced marijuana, about a pound of dried mushrooms and five grams of cocaine. Also confiscated was a lighting system appropriate for growing plants, they said.

Agents said the pair were suspected of selling drugs in the area. The building that was raided also is used as a tour business and for the rental of jet skis, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.

Mexican newspaper shot up


Two masked men armed with high-powered rifles shot at the installation of the newspaper Noroeste in Mazatlán, México, Tuesday after dropping a leaflet at the main door accusing the federal government of protecting the Sinaloa cartel. The building was empty at the time, and there were no injuries, reported the Noroeste Editorial Group’s general manager Manuel Becerra. The attacks followed phoned threats over a report it published on gang warfare among local drug cartels.
The attack quickly was condemned by the Inter American Press Association, a hemispheric press advocacy group.