Proposed Law Ending Phone Monopoly Gets First O.K.

Feb. 14

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Legislators approved for the initial vote Wednesday the controversial Ley General de Telecomunicaciones that would open up telephone service to private companies and break the long-held monopoly of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad.

The Asamblea Legislativa vote was 36 to 19 with the Partido Acción Ciudadana and two independent lawmakers voting no. Legislative officials said a second and final vote will be held next week.

This is the fifth of some 14 measures to be passed. The bills are the implementation agenda for the free trade treaty with the United States.

Casa Presidencial greeted the morning action with joy. Rodrigo Arias Sánchez, brother of the president and minister of the Presidencia, called the measure part of the spinal column of the free trade agenda. He also cited the law that would eliminate  the insurance monopoly of the Instituto  Nacional de Seguros and a law designed to strengthen the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad.

Proponents quickly praised the measure as a way to improve the quality of life in Costa Rica. Opponents said the measure would eliminate the universal telephone service that the  Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad now provides.

Opposing lawmakers said they would ask the Sala IV constitutional court to rule on the legality of the bill, mainly because it demolishes the monopoly of the national telecommunications company.

Union members of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad were among the strongest opponents of the free trade treaty, and their yellow shirts and banners dominated anti-treaty protests.

Among other actions, the bill, if it finally becomes law, would create a supervisory agency for telecommunications.