Internet Services and E-Commerce Prospects in Costa Rica
Along with other neighboring Central American countries like Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua, Costa Rica has known great progress in all telecommunication areas over the last few years and is showing a lot of potential for growth and expansion in terms of high speed internet services as well. Furthermore, as the country’s government actively supports development of ICT processes and operations, Costa Rica has also managed to achieve a significant level of improvement in terms of ICT infrastructure. Thanks to this, the country has become an important node for e-commerce, and has encouraged the emergence of solid internet service providers in the Costa Rican market.
With multiple reliable Costa Rica ISPs operating in the country, the telecommunication field is however dominated by two main government trusts – Grupo ICE and RASCA, with the latter functioning as ICE’s affiliated company. ICE is the provider of two country-wide popular Internet services: ISDN and ADSL. ISDN is perceived as a basic offer of Internet service in Costa Rica, delivers twice the speed of a regular dial-up connection (128 Kbps), and can be purchased in regions in which DSL or cable Internet options are not widely available.
ICE’s Internet offer also includes ADSL services, which stand out as a high-speed data transfer system using copper telephone networks. The operator of ADSL provides connection options at download/upload speed rates starting at 256/128 Kbps and going all the way up to 4096/768 Kbps. RACSA also provides other enticing Internet service alternatives, such as dial-up connection, prepaid Internet options (all dial-up based), high-speed cable Internet and the newly introduced, yet popular WiMAX service.
Available in a price range between $9.90 and $35, and delivered by Costa Rica ISP, RACSA included, the dial-up option seems to appeal most to middle-class Costa Ricans, primarily for the increased affordability of available offers. However, RACSA also provides high-speed cable Internet services, the fastest types of Internet connections designed for personal users. Other high speed internet Costa Rica providers that are gaining ground in the country’s internet communications field are Cable Tica, Coopelesca, Amnet and Super Cable.
WiMAX stands for a high-speed wireless Internet connection option that has rapidly become popular among companies and personal users in need of a fast and reliable data communication option. This recently introduced service is available for prices ranging from $29 up to $244 in certain districts of San Jose, Cartago, Heredia and will soon extend its coverage over other major cities like Alajuela. Other Costa Rica ISPs have penetrated into the country’s telecommunication market – with some of them also competing for high speed internet service supremacy – but haven’t yet managed to make a sensible impact. Some smaller providers of internet services in Costa Rica are still working on obtaining their legal permits that will allow them to operate in the country.
Concerning the growth and spreading of Costa Rica internet services, statistics indicate huge progress in these areas registered over the last decade, with the country’s internet market now including 1.5 million users, the equivalent of 34% of the entire Costa Rican population. Although this is undoubtedly good news for the country’s economy, the actual Internet service penetration is still at a low threshold in comparison with other information and communication technologies leaders in Central America.