The Costa Rican unit of Spanish telecom giant Telefónica filed a complaint Dec. 20 with Costa Rican telecom regulator Sutel against state-owned operator Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). Telefónica, which operates under the Movistar brand, accused ICE of anticompetitive practices in promotions for prepaid services.
Movistar claims that the price per minute of two ICE prepaid promotions, named ‘Chip extremo’ and ‘Chip SMS extremo,’ is lower than the wholesale charge or call termination fees on the ICE network, which hinders Movistar from competing.
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Movistar told RCR Wireless News that in compliance with the possibilities offered by the national legislation, the company seeks the conditions for competition in the newly opened mobile phone market and aims that consumers can benefit from real and lasting competition.
Before Sutel granted mobile operator licenses to Claro (a unit of Carlos Slim’s América Móvil) and Telefónica’s Movistar, Costa Rica’s telecom market had been a state monopoly for nearly half a century.
Claro and Movistar each have 1 million lines and started operating in November. The operators signed an interconnection agreement with ICE after technical tests on communication between the networks and billing for the use of another operator’s network.
