By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s Ombudsman’s office considers the proposal presented by the telecommunications superintendency, Sutel, to eliminate set prices for postpaid mobile telephone services is unjustified.

The proposed changes will not guarantee that charges for current Internet speed are maintained, and open the possibility that consumers will be charged on a per-download basis without any regulation, said the Ombudsman in their 17-page public comment on the proposal.

The public has until November 15 to comment on a series of technical documents presented by Sutel on Costa Rica’s telecom markets, the degree of competition in those markets, and existing operators and suppliers of mobile, residential, fixed and international broadband telecommunications services.

According to the Ombudsman’s analysis, the postpaid telephone market is an oligopoly with a dominant company (ICE) providing services to most of the market, and serving as the leader in establishing prices and marketing strategies.

Deputy Ombudsman, Juan Manuel Cordero said that “at no time does the Sutel provide a technical explanation that justifies its proposal to eliminate the tariff fixation for postpaid services.” Cordero said he did not find that the Sutel report explained why post-paid plans should be eliminated, or how such a measure would benefit competition in the market. Sutel also does not describe what benefits consumers would gain from such a measure, said Cordero.

Sutel first proposed switching to a pay-per-download Internet pricing scheme 2014 to allegedly address an over-saturation of the country’s network. At a public hearing on the topic, a small group of consumers opposed the move, and the issue was put on hold until last year when Sutel again held a public hearing to try to change postpaid Internet to ‘encourage competition’ with the same frustrated result.