by Rod Hughes

ICE, the government telecommunications monopoly, has released 350,000 GSM cellular telephone lines for sale. If this seems too good to be true, it is; 200,000 have already been reserved.

Still, it was good news for a country in which the demand for cell phone lines has long ago outstripped supply. The holdup was the same as usual with ECE: The infrastructure was not in place because of a lack of equipment. Of the new lines, 300,000 was to add to the Ericsson net and 40,000 to GSM.

Those buying the technology must sheel out the modest sum of 12,000 colones, be free from past debt to INE and present themselves with cell phones fully recharged for programming. But they won’t be able to call home immediately with the good news. They will be given an activation date when the line will become active.

Merry Cyristmas.