Wireless data and communications providers in Costa Rica spent almost two years in a relative state of post-monopoly peace. That changed a few days ago, however, with an announcement by former communications monopoly ICE with regard to its prepaid wireless rates. The cost of using ICE's extremely popular Short Message Service (SMS) went up by almost 100 percent, which means it now costs three colo...

High speed internet access up to 100 Mbps is now a reality in Costa Rica, thanks to a new product by Cabletica, that is available for both businesses and homes. But it’s not cheap. Cabletica is pricing the 100 Mbps at US$749 monthly. The rate is for residential, the cable company does not publish the business rate on its website. Connection speeds of up to 50 Mbps is priced at US$399; 35 Mbp...

Costa Rica’s former astronaut, Franklin Chang, announced today that he surpassed his goal of raising $46,000 for the creation of a documentary that explains the features of a plasma rocket engine developed by Ad Astra in its laboratories located in Costa Rica and the United States. Regarding his successful fundraising project, the Costa Rican astronaut stated: “We reached our goal of $46,00...

Costa Rica will host the Global Youth Summit sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations announced today. The meeting will be in session from September 9 to 11 and will discuss the use of new information and communication technologies to improve the quality of life and influence the post-2015 development agenda. In remarks broadcast by the UN radio stat...

Starting yesterday, the state telecom, Instituto Nacional de Electricidad (ICE) will be charging its customers more to use their mobile devices (cellular phones and tablets). ICE yesterday announced new rates for its Kölbi mobile services, raising its text messaging cost to ¢3 colones per each message sent. Multimedia messages (photos and videos) will cost from ¢6 to ¢50 colones per minute, de...

The practice of sharing digital photographs of a sexual nature over electronic communication networks is rising among young people in Costa Rica. This activity is known as "sexting," and it is something that lawmakers and public officials in Costa Rica want to reduce and control through a series of legislative initiatives. A recent report by online news site CRHoy explains that young Ticos are mi...

Source: Wikimedia Commons India recently closed a 163 year-old chapter of her communications history as a telegraphic operator tapped out that country's last telegram sent across a state-run network. As expected, the final Morse code dot/dash sequence on that last telegram spelled out STOP. A postal worker wearing a khaki uniform delivered the missive to its intended recipient and, just like tha...

Mobile internet usage in Costa Rica has increased by nearly 60 percent over the past twelve months. Nearly half of mobile customers are currently using mobile data services on their handsets, according to a study by local newspaper El Financiero. Costa Rican operator ICE reports that over 38.2 percent of its mobile customers are using smartphones. Around 50 percent of Movistar’s user base is us...

This article was provided by BNAmericas.com, the leading business and technology insight website for Latin America. Mobile operators Claro and Movistar are calling on Costa Rican authorities to clarify the nation's spectrum management policy. Clear spectrum regulation would ensure fair competition between firms and attract investment, Claro executive Victor García was quoted as saying in a r...

File photo According to media reports of documents leaked by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is capable of running a virtual wiretap on magicJack and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communications. The NSA has admitted that it collects information about telephone calls originating from ...

If you are familiar with products released by the Mozilla Foundation, such as the popular Firefox web browser, you might be interested in the latest offerings by smartphone manufacturers Alcatel and ZTE. Earlier this week, the Mozilla Foundation and its strategic partners announced the release of the ZTE Open and Alcatel Touch, two smartphones powered by the new Firefox OS mobile operating system....

On February 21, Costa Rica will host its first E-Commerce Day, as part of the lecture series that drive the development of electronic commerce in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Sao Paulo and Costa Rica. The event will be held on Thursday at the Hotel Real Intercontinental, with the aim of promoting the region’s approach companies and new entrepreneurs to trade online, bringin...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Feb. 13, 2013 - Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today released a unique view into the State of the Internet for Costa Rica. Available at http://www.akamai.com/dl/akamai/q3_2012_costarica_soti_infographic.pdf, the data set compiles Internet connectivity ...

The province of Guanacaste, an area where the winds blow strong, is hot for investors interested in wind farms, reports Nacion.com. In Tilaran, Guanacaste, there are already five power plants with wind turbines in operation. One is owned by the state run Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), and the other four are owned by private businessmen. Jovel Arias, mayor, said that because...

A UFO was filmed by a pilot flying over Costa Rica, video posted to Youtube on January 30th, 2013. The silver, rounded orb flew past his airplane at an incredible rate of speed. What is it? The video below, posted to YouTube, is a Costa Rican TV broadcast report in Spanish. But the translation in the description tells the story. The pilot was filming out the window with an iPhone wh...

This Central American country has become a strategic location for international companies to develop new forms of information technology. The data provided by the International Monetary Fund on the economy of Costa Rica reflects strength and growth. This small Central American country has seen its economy rise this year by 4.8%, one point more than speculated in January this year, and it is exp...

The board of Costa Rica's telecoms regulator Sutel will select the number portability administrator on 30 January, local newspaper El Financiero reports. The administrator will be selected by Sutel, because the Portability Commission has not reached an unanimous verdict in the recent tender which included bids from Teletech, Telcordia, El Corte Ingles and Porting XS. Costa Rica’s Portability Co...

Movistar has launched a promotion for its prepay users in Costa Rica. Customers who make a minimum top-up of CRC 1,000 will receive free access to social networking services Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp for three days. Customers will also receive a bonus of 400 SMS to national numbers. The promotion is part of the operator’s ‘Generacion Movistar’ campaign, which targets young customers, La Na...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:09am EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tubular, a small San Francisco start-up that provides analytics for YouTube content creators, has raised $2.5 million in venture capital in the latest sign of how far the business ecosystem has evolved around the Google-owned video repository. YouTube was once kno...

Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:53am EST (Reuters) - Bankrupt camera maker Eastman Kodak Co agreed to sell its digital imaging patents for about $525 million to a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp, a key step to ending its bankruptcy. The photography pioneer said a portion of the payment will come from 12 intellectual property licensees organized by Intelle...

ISTRES, France | Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:47am EST ISTRES, France (Reuters) - French defense electronics group Thales will name former Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy as its new chief executive on Thursday, the head of key shareholder Dassault Aviation said. The French state and jet maker Dassault Aviation, which own 27 and 26 percent of Thales respe...

Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:46am EST (Reuters) - Shares of Oracle Corp, the world's No. 3 software maker, looked set to open about 3 percent higher on Wednesday after it forecast strong sales for next year, prompting several brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock. The company's results often set the tone for smaller software makers, and analysts said the 17 ...

MOSCOW | Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:04am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Sberbank, Russia's top lender, plans to buy Yandex.Dengi, an online payment service owned by Russian search engine Yandex, a source familiar with the matter said. Sberbank declined to comment. Yandex, which was not available to comment, was expected to hold a news conference on Wednesday.Sberbank, w...

By Gerry Shih and Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:45pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Instagram, which spurred suspicions this week that it would sell user photos after revising its terms of service, has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steepe...

WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:57pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which had been expected to wrap up an anti-trust probe into Google within days, will now delay its decision for weeks, a source said on Tuesday. Google has been accused of giving competitors in lucrative areas like travel a lower ranking in search results,...

By Dan Levine Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:54pm EST (Reuters) - Google's Motorola Mobility unit cannot assert a patent against Apple Inc which covers a sensor that stops phone users from dialing wrong numbers on touchscreen devices, a U.S. trade judge ruled. In an entry on the U.S. International Trade Commission docket on Tuesday, Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pe...

By Jim Finkle BOSTON | Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:29pm EST BOSTON (Reuters) - Oracle Corp's quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations on strong software sales growth, suggesting that the approach of the "fiscal cliff" has yet to crimp corporate spending on technology. Shares of the world's No. 3 software maker rose 2.6 percent on the news."I would c...

WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:48pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it has reached a settlement with Pearson Plc's Penguin Group in the government's investigation of alleged price-setting in the e-book market. In a statement, the Justice Department's antitrust office said it will continue to press its case against ...

SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:47pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, said on Tuesday it has "no plans" to incorporate user photos into ads in response to a growing public outcry over new privacy policies unveiled this week. Instagram Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a blog post tha...

STOCKHOLM | Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:35pm EST STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Korea's Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it would drop law suits aimed at banning the sale of Apple Inc. products in Europe just a day after scoring a victory in a battle in the United States with the maker of iPhones. Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, have been lock...

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS | Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:21pm EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union set Google an ultimatum on Tuesday, giving it a month to come up with detailed proposals to resolve a two-year investigation into complaints that it used its power to block rivals, including Microsoft. The EU's antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, delivere...

By Jennifer Saba Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:07pm EST (Reuters) - Nielsen Holdings NV, the largest provider of television viewership ratings, will now dominate radio listening ratings as well. Nielsen on Tuesday struck a deal to acquire its radio counterpart, Arbitron Inc, for $1.26 billion. The deal creates a powerhouse that places the measurement of audience for...

Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:05pm EST (Reuters) - Sprint Corp promised to pay Clearwire Corp a $120 million breakup fee if its $2.2 billion purchase of roughly half of the smaller wireless service provider does not go ahead. At the same time, Clearwire said on Tuesday it agreed to a "no-shop" provision, meaning it cannot seek other offers but could consider unsolicited off...

SEATTLE | Tue Dec 18, 2012 12:18pm EST SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Google Inc's Motorola phone unit remain millions of dollars apart in their respective valuations of video and wi-fi patents at issue in a pivotal case before a federal judge in Seattle. The outcome, expected sometime next year, could be a key development in the balance of power...

By Ritsuko Ando HELSINKI | Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:48am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - It's too soon to bet that Nokia's on the road to recovery after its new Lumia smartphones were sold out in many stores across Europe and America, as retailers say supplies have been short ever since their launch. The Lumia 920 and 820, which use Microsoft's latest Window...

Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:12am EST (Reuters) - FactSet Research Systems Inc reported lower-than-expected first-quarter revenue, and the financial information provider forecast current-quarter results largely below estimates as banks and brokerages cut costs. FactSet shares fell 5 percent before the bell on Tuesday.The company, which provides data to portfolio managers, ...

Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:58pm EST (Reuters) - Apple Inc sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in China in just three days after its launch there on Friday, its best ever smartphone launch in the country, but Apple shares fell on Monday after Citi downgraded the stock. The highly anticipated release in China, Apple's second-biggest market, has not eased worries about stiff...

By Sinead Carew and Sayantani Ghosh Mon Dec 17, 2012 3:32pm EST (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp's $2.2 billion offer for Clearwire Corp is likely to face resistance from Clearwire's minority shareholders, but accepting the offer may prove to be their best option. Clearwire Chief Executive Erik Prusch said the company could face a restructuring if sharehold...

WILMINGTON, Del | Mon Dec 17, 2012 3:05pm EST WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - A Delaware judge on Monday blocked Ancestry.com Inc's shareholder vote on the sale of the family-research website for $1.6 billion to private equity firm Permira Investment Advisors pending added details on the sale process. Ancestry.com shareholders had sued to prevent a vote to ...

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON | Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:24pm EST BOSTON (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for Facebook Inc's initial public offering, will pay a $5 million fine to Massachusetts to settle charges that its bankers improperly influenced its research analysts when the Internet company went public. Massachusetts' top securit...