Committee rejects all GSM bids

A project development committee at Costa Rica's state-run electric power and telecoms monopoly ICE has recommended that the board reject all three proposals received for the supply of GSM infrastructure, local daily Prensa Libre reported. ICE has been deliberating over bids from Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY) and Alcatel (NSYE: ALA) since December 2002. The companies offered to supply infrastructure for 600,000 lines for US$130mn, US$120mn and US$199mn respectively. ICE already has network capacity for 400,000 GSM lines, deployed by Alcatel. According to the committee, none of the offers meet ICE's requirement for 95% coverage of capital San Jose, and in rural areas there are many highways that would not be covered. There were other indices the three bidders fell short of, and in some cases they failed to adhere to administrative procedures. Based on the committee's report, the ICE board could abandon the procurement process even before studying the bidders' financial offers. Meanwhile, the ICE board has ratified a decision to select South Korea's Samsung as the winner of a contract to supply 84,485 digital subscriber line (DSL) ports, an ICE official told BNamericas. The decision means ICE should be able to move forward with its long-awaited advanced Internet broadband project, to make use of US$25mn worth of Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) routers already installed by local firm GBM. But rival supplier Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) could appeal the decision if it finds fault with Samsung's bid. Even if it doesn't, ICE must negotiate the final draft of the contract, which should take at least two months, the source pointed out.