Archive for January 14th, 2009
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Huawei has won a US$235 million contract to build a 3G network in Costa Rica, according to local media. Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) deputy manager Claudio Bermudez said the 3G network should be operational throughout the Central American nation by the end of 2009.
ICE is currently the monopoly mobile operator in the country – although moves to liberalise the market was passed into law last year.
Last August, ICE had decided not to accept a sole bid from China’s Huawei for the supply of a 3G network – and will tried to retender the contract. The company had come under political pressure from the Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias to reject the contract.
Both Nokia and ZTE withdrew from the original tender process and Huawei’s own bid was roughly double the estimate that ICE had proposed. ICE had expected to spend around US$225 million on the 3G upgrade – but Huawei tendered a contract costing nearly US$583 million for 1.5 million 3G lines.
The new 3G contract calls for network capacity for 935,000 3G lines.
The Mobile World subscriber database estimates that ICE ended the 3rd quarter of last year with some 2.75 million subscribers, including some 46,000 customers on legacy AMPS and TDMA networks.
Alvarion recently won a WiMAX tender from ICE worth US$6 million covering San Jose and the rural areas of Limon.
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Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
The death toll from Costa Rica’s magnitude-6.1 earthquake has risen to 20 after more bodies were found.
The country’s judicial investigative agency says the death toll stands at 20 after three more bodies were found. Two were farm workers.
The quake rocked the Central American nation on Thursday, unleashing massive landslides and destroying homes in a mountainous, remote region popular with tourists and farmers. Fifteen of the victims have been identified.
President Oscar Arias visited a tent camp Tuesday that houses some of the estimated 2,000 victims whose homes were damaged or destroyed.
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Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Several earthquakes of medium intensity rocked different countries of Central America Tuesday, according to information reaching here.
In Costa Rica, two earthquakes took place early Tuesday morning, one was 4.1 magnitude at 8:23 p.m (0223 GMT) and the other 4.3 magnitude at 1:09 a.m. (0709 GMT) in Valle Central, where main cities of the country are located.
No damages or casualties have been reported yet.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, a 4.4-magnitude earthquake hit the northwestern city of Medellin, with no immediate report of victims and damages, the Geology and Mining Institute (Ingeominas) said.
The earthquake in Medellin occurred at 2:49 p.m. (1949 GMT) with the epicenter in the municipality of Bolivar, southwest of Medellin.
In El Salvador, an earthquake mearusing 4.2 degrees on the Richter scale took place in the eastern municipality of Acajutla at 8:09 a.m. (1409 GMT).
The Salvadorian National Institute of Territorial Studies (SNET) said it has registered six earthquakes in the coast regions of Ahuachapan, La Libertad, Usulutan and San Miguel in 2009.
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Costa Rica’s mountain villages 35 km northwest of the capital of San Jose last Thursday. The quake left at least 19 people dead and 23 more missing, according to latest media reports.
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