by Rod Hughes
Next March 20, most Costa Rican phones will have an eight-digit numbers, at a cost to the Electrical Institute (ICE) of $15 million to bring all the machinery up to speed.
Some numbers will not change, such as 911 emergency, 115 ICE customer service, 118 fire department and the 128 Red Cross lines, plus the 800 toll-free numbers. The commercial numbers 900 and 905 will also remain the same.
Demonstrating how rapid phone line growth has been, the change from six to seven digits has only been in effect since March 31, 1994. But ICE promises that the eight-digits will be good for the next 40 years.
Interestingly, cell phone use has surpassed fixed operation lines. According to an article in the daily paper La Nacion, there are currently a million fixed phones in Costa Rica (roughly 765,000 home phones and 235,000 commercial lines) while cell phone lines are now at 1.5 million (a million under the GSM system and 500,000 TDMA).
But those who have been waiting forever for a new line should not get their hopes up, the paper warned. The new numbers do not mean that new lines will magically be created. ICE’s Claudio Bermudez told the paper that new machinery is being purchased for new lines but refused to specify which areas or communities would be benefited.
So lines are not only found strung on poles or in electronic switchboards but also at ICE offices, composed of people standing around to apply for a phone number of any number of digits.