By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s Telecommunications Superintendency (Sutel) last week announced they would extend by 5 working days the public consultation period on proposed changes to the country’s telecommunication markets.

The extension was in response to pressure from the country’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes). However, the country’s ombudswoman, Montserrat Solano Carboni, didn’t expect such a short extension.

So, her office submitted yesterday a formal legal request to Sutel for a two-week additional public consultation phase due to the significance of the proposed changes, and the technical complexity and length of the proposal (over 1,000 pages); this additional two weeks would allow for a one-month total public comment period.

Sutel’s proposal is based on technical studies that analyse the country’s 11 telecommunications markets from an economic and technological standpoint. It includes plans to change postpaid Internet plans, as well as other aspects of telephone and Internet plans in order to make them more competitive, said the agency.

With the 5-day extension, the public has until Monday, October 31 to sift through the dense document and provide comments on this topic of great relevance and importance for daily life, given the many ways Internet is used today for exchanging information, for personal communication, for banking, commerce, entertainment, and more.

Sutel has informed via their website that the technical document with the proposal are available for consultation at the Sutel main office, and can also be downloaded from the following link: https://sutel.go.cr/audiencias/publicas.

Interested parties may submit their comments by email to <[email protected]>.

The Ombudsman’s office in a press statement said they felt that if Sutel failed to grant the requested one-month extension, they would violate the public’s constitutional right to participation in a public matter of importance to their well-being, according to Juan Manuel Cordero, Deputy Ombudsman.