Final Project for GSMA´s course Radio Signals and Health

1. Telecommunications
infrastructure and progress in
Costa Rica
Jorge Villalobos Cascante
Radio Signals and Health

2. Brief history
 Since 1949 Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) was in charge of
electrical development in Costa Rica. In 1963, National Telecommunication
progress was added to the functions it previously performed.
 Cellular technology arrived to this country with private operators in late
80´s but in the middle of the 90´s ICE took responsability about control,
improvement and commercialization.
 In november 2011, ICE´s monopoly ended as the only mobile operator in
Costa Rica, now we have three major competitors (ICE, Movistar and
Claro).

3. Towers, sites, RB´s… And the problem
started!!
 As I mentioned in previous slide, ICE worked alone in Cellular business for
around 15 years in Costa Rica, and of course this institution placed towers
all over the country to provide signal to all the new potential customers.
 With punctual exceptions, that improvement didn´t cause big trouble,
people were mostly happy with the opportunity to be part of the mobile
experience.
 But when private operators came to the country, their situation was a little
different. People were divided by CAFTA resolutions and the atmosphere
wasn´t easy to handle for them and the government.

4. What to do??
 When people started to block
new constructions for cellular
technology, Costa Rica had to
deal with a serious divergency…
Government forced operators to
improve their networks every year
but several local governments
(municipalities) banned
constructions and location of new
sites.

5. Legislation in Costa Rica
 Ley General de Telecomunicaciones N° 8642.
 Decreto Nº 24.037/S - Reglamento sobre protección contra las radiaciones
ionizantes.
 Decreto 36324-S - Reglamento para regular la exposición a campos
Electromagnéticos de radiaciones no ionizantes, emitidos por sistemas
inalámbricos con frecuencias de hasta 300 GHz.
 NT-GR-2010-001.Revisión 1 1 Título: Mimetización de torres y antenas
celulares.
 And more…

6. Lights on!!
 To deal with politicization, masive
lack of information and local
burocracy, the government
defined Telecommunications
progress as an esential thing for
communities and country in
general.
 So, construction of towers or
placing new sites was a major
interest for communities and
municipalities didn´t have to
block this technology chance.

7. Not so fast!!
 Despite that order, things now are not so easy yet.
 Burocracy and lack of information continue playing an important role for
development in Costa Rica.
 People argue that towers and antennas are cause of cancer and all kind
of health issues, even with all reliable information sources we can find these
days with Internet for example.
 Costa Rica apply recommendations of WHO for Ionizing and No-Ionizing
radiation, but that´s not enough for some people.

8. Recommendations??
 People are sceptic about towers or
antennas near by schools or
medical centers, and municipalities
have improved some confusing
rules for that, 200 meters, 500 meters
or even more are distances you
can find to deal with if you want to
build a new construction for
telecommunications. And of
course, an antenna can´t be near
to another one.
 We have not a total agree in many
ways, so we´re going to face this for
many years.

9. Possibilities…
 Harmonisation of local policy with international recommendations is not an
easy job, but some efforts have been taken for several participants in Costa
Rica.
 Health Ministry and SUTEL (Regulator) have improved campaigns to favor
this process.
 Antenna sharing and integration with the environment are options wich
some municipalities consider to approve or deny a new cell location
nowadays.

10. Conclusion
 Mass use of towers and telecommunications infrastructure are part of a
recent process in Costa Rica, an we´re still getting use to it.
 Telecommunication development was defined as a thing of major interest
for communities and country, this action helped to continue with new
constructions and network improvements.
 Lack of information is a major barrier to exceed, We need more and
intense campaigns from government.
 Costa Rica apply WHO and ICNIRP recommendations, still some people are
sceptic about it.