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Cellular Phone Connection Problems Continue

The unification of the GSM cellular networks of Saturday still has thousands without cellular service and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) scrambling to restore their connection.

An estimated 30.000 to 40.000 GSM subscribers were affected by the unification of the networks, as their cellular phone units, for one reason or another, did not switch over automatically.

Well, at least that is the reason being given by ICE, while an unknown number of thousands are completely without cellular service still.

Cellular phones like the HTC, Blackberry, iPhone and Nokia e71 are known as “smarphones” and will adapt to any changes on any network, thus leading one to believe that the problems of the thousands of customers is not a cellular phone unit problem, but rather one of ICE’s failure.

According to ICE, GSM subscribers were asked to turn off and then turn on their cellular units on Saturday. This action would ensure an automatic changeover of the system.

For those who continue to have problems and have not contact ICE, they should do so by visiting the nearest ICE agency.

And if you continue to experience problems and without a solution in sight, there is always the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep), the government regulator of public services.

As of Monday afternoon, the Aresep said it had not received any complaints. Yesterday, due to the Independence Day holiday, the Aresep, as well as ICE is closed, forcing subscribers to wait out one more day without service or a place to take their complaint.