QCOSTARICA – Some 105,000 households could be surfing the world wide web (the internet) in ultrafast (ultraveloz in Spanish) next month, with the entry of the next generation of fibre optice network.
The Red de Accesso de Nueva Generacion (RANGE) by the state telecom ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) will offer 20,000 households all fibre optic connections from 30 MPBS up to 100 MBPS, in the Greater metropolitan Area (GAM) of San Jose, and 85,000 households (not in the GAM) a mixed copper and fibre optic connection with speeds ranging from 10 MPBS to 30 MBPS.
The initiative began in 2012, with insiders expecting it to online as early as next month.
How much will the new service cost? ICE is keeping secret data as a matter of strategy. Nor is it revealing the total cost of the initiative, financed through a trust with Banco de Costa Rica (BCR).
The high-speed connection is part of the work to expand the transmission capacity of the Maya I and Arcos I submarine cables and transmission line Moin-Sixaola and Bribri telecom station.
Expected also in the coming months is increased speeds for mobile internet services. All three operators, Kölbi, Claro and Movistar are promising to expand coverage of the 4G LTE network throughout the country, and by optimizing 3G traffic.
Currently, postpaid mobile internet plans offer speeds from 1 Mbps to 5 Mbps, while prepaid is at 1 Mbps.
