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| President of Consultel, Antonio
Menafra |
| Courtesy Consultel |
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| Consultel has been given
the task of building the cellular infrastructure
GSM network. |
| Courtesy Consultel |
To privatize or not to privatize, to modernize or
not to modernize the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity
and Telecommunications (ICE) have been the questions
the Government of Costa Rica has been asking for some
time now. Many eager investors, domestic as well as
foreign, still are waiting for the final decision
concerning this state monopoly.
In spite of these long-lasting speculations, a few
business opportunities have presented themselves,
mainly in the area of cellular telecommunications
and the Internet. Both are undergoing dramatic but
necessary changes, particularly through this year
and next.
Consultel is a Caracas, Venezuela-based telecommunications
contractor company established in 1999. Despite its
fairly brief history Consultel has
managed to catch up with rapid developments and trends
in the telecommunications sector of this region. The
company’s president, Antonio Menafra, and general
manager, Silverio Gonzalez, both explain that Venezuela
began to look into Central America and the Caribbean
region back in the 1980s, because technology and the
demand for it were evolving so rapidly.
In many countries in this particular region, the
purchasing power and per capita income are still
promisingly low. Therefore, it was only natural
for Consultel to attempt to explore business opportunities
with ICE, which Consultel did this year, when Alcatel,
the provider of ICE’s new GSM-technology, appointed
Consultel amongst other contractors to build the
infrastructure for this new network.
Mr. Menafra and Mr. Gonzalez expand on the potential
of Costa Rica: “Right now there are very few
cellular subscribers for a country like Costa Rica.
This network should have a capacity close to one million
subscribers.” This is expected to be reached
by the middle of next year.
Consultel arrived in Costa Rica last July, to become
one of the main contractors to the French telecommunications
firm Alcatel. Their shared goal is to provide the
first 400,000 GSM-lines by the end of this year. The
role of Consultel, and the other companies, is to
build 248 BTS stations for these 400,000 new lines.
If Consultel receives the tender it will also participate
in the construction of an additional 300 stations
next year, needed to accommodate 600,000 new GSM-lines.
As with the first 400,000 lines, the network will
be leased to ICE, the operator, with an option to
buy.
“Combining the geographical obstacles of Costa
Rica with our company’s high quality is a challenge
to us, but when this is completed, it will bring a
dramatic change,” said Menafra and Gonzalez.
They continue to explain that each region of Costa
Rica, even the frontiers, will have coverage. According
to Menafra and Gonzalez it will also substantially
alter people’s lives: “When a fisherman
in Tortuguero is able to communicate with his family
by a cellular phone, our goal will be fulfilled!”
Other concrete signs of improvement are the better
quality of voice services, and the lower per minute-based
cost of calls. Moreover, not only will the GSM-technology
change the lives of ordinary Costa Ricans, but it
will also add a lot of value to Costa Rica as an investment
destination, whose infrastructure is often seen as
lagging behind the country’s other impressive
achievements.
These changes require capital-intensive investors,
and Consultel alone is investing $1 million in infrastructure
of these projects. Moreover, not only is the cost
high, but the pressure is also enormous in view of
the foreseen penalties involved in not delivering
the network infrastructure in due time.
However, Consultel is hoping to win again, for it
entered Costa Rica as a long-term investor: “We
are here because Costa Rica is a country of political
and economic stability,” said the two executives.
“We are one hundred-strong now in Costa Rica,
and our headquarters for Central America and the Caribbean
area is here. Through the Panama hub we can get to
the Caribbean islands, and this is all so much easier
for us now compared to how it was from Venezuela.
And you know, ours is not the only large company that
has decided to move its offices to Costa Rica. It
is all about that ‘ambience of stability’
that exists here.”
When it comes to the role of ICE, Consultel has only
a positive outlook. According to Menafra and Gonzalez,
ICE has proved wrong the idea that a state-owned company
cannot be run efficiently and professionally. ICE
has been catching up with worldwide technology, and
for a country of this size the achievements have been
amazing. The quality control of ICE is so high that
it leaves many others behind.
To further advise foreign investors, the head
of Consultel says, “We are here to support
investors in the most dynamic sector, and we are
very positive about the development and its speed.
It is an honor to be in Costa Rica, and whichever
direction ICE takes in the future, privatization
or modernization, the opportunities are multiple.”
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