by Rod Hughes

Why are we not surprised at the above headline in this morning’s La Nacion?

The article talks about the incapacity of the government Internet access monopoly, the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE) to satisfy the burgeoning demand for Web connections, especially its highly-touted high speed Acelera version. Acelera allows a user to be on line during 24 hours for a fixed monthly rate with DSL technology.

Opponents of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) often rant about losing government control of communications but other Costa Ricans are not so sure. Arcadio, editorial cartoonist for the English-language weekly, The Tico Times, usually depicts ICE as a lumbering dinosaur.

At least 36 areas in the country are clammering for connections, most in the Central Valley but the outer provinces have a growing demand, for places like Jaco Beach, Nicoya, Liberia, Santa Cruz and Ciudad Quesada. The demand apparently caught ICE flatfooted. In 2004 it opened 105,000 Internet lines in 160 places in the country. Today, for example, only five connections remain of the 768 lines opened in Santo Domingo de Heredia, reported the paper.

In capital suburb of Tibas, a waiting list is forming because no more modems are available, reported the paper. Recently, ICE grandly announced it would install 12,500 new modems, but the Comptroller General’s office refused authorization, so the promise has already taken months to fulfill.

In part, ICE is the victim of the blinding speed of computer technology advances. Orlando Cascante, ICE’s chief of customer service, notes that demand for 512 kbps velocity has risen from 15% last year to 26% this year. But Cascante points out that the present ICE system was installed in 2001, “And 128 kbps was gigantic in that era—but not now.”