Costa Rica's ICE claims discriminatory treatment by Sutel

Costa Rican state-owned telco ICE has filed a legal protection measure against telecom regulator Sutel, claiming that the watchdog's outdated practices result in discriminatory treatment.

ICE argues that Sutel has not updated its guidelines and market studies since 2009, when it published resolution RCS-037-2009, in which it recognized 18 relevant geographical markets in the country. The resolution named ICE as the only dominant operator on the basis that it was the only provider that had control of essential infrastructure.

The resolution also stated that Sutel would name any provider that had its own infrastructure as a dominant operator .

ICE argues that since 2011 competing operators have owned their own networks and infrastructure, but Sutel has not named any other dominant players.

José Luis Navarro, manager for regulatory relations at ICE, said that a revision of the resolution would prompt Sutel to update its list of dominant players. "But since the revision is not underway, there is a situation of regulatory imbalance in a very dynamic industry," he said in a press release.

ICE is currently fighting Sutel over a fine for monopolistic practices applied back in 2012, which the operator claims it should not have to pay. ICE maintains that it is the only Costa Rican operator susceptible to such fines, because no other provider is considered dominant.

A panel of experts from academia, international institutions and industry players determined that Sutel's view of the market dates back to when Costa Rican telecommunications were still a monopoly.

Costa Rica opened up the telecoms sector in 2009. It was previously monopolized by ICE, but now there are other players, even though ICE is still the most powerful of them. In an unprecedented move, the operator announced in May that it would start a process to eliminate regulation of tariffs.

The watchdog plans to start an investigation into the market to see whether there is real competition and, if that is found to be the case, will let the operators set their own fees.