ICE (no it is not pronounced the same as frozen water, but “ee-say”) is our government run utility that provides every household and business with its electrical power (via the division CNFL) and telephone service. At the present time there are no alternatives to ICE, so you’d better be nice. ICE is a beloved institution to many Costa Ricans, especially their workers. They will defend ICE to the death and showed as much during the recent battle to pass the TLC (or Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.). One thing that helps to make the transition from U.S. to Costa Rican culture is to maintain a good sense of humor. And that is especially true when it comes to dealing with ICE. After waiting in line for an hour or more to get customer service, it helps just to shake your head and chuckle. Being an entrepreneur, I have never been a fan of government red tape. However, in Costa Rica, when it comes to working with the government and, believe me, ICE is as bureaucratic as they come, there are miles of it (red tape, that is). A great example of this is the “personaria juridica.” This is a document akin to a power of attorney back in the U.S. If you need to do a transaction with ICE on behalf of your business, you have to have one of these babies. And it must be recent, or they won’t accept it. So if you want to add a new phone line, you have to pay an attorney to produce a personaria. Then there were the rolling blackouts we experienced a while back. It all started with a nationwide blackout that it took ICE about a week to truthfully explain. Seems that the equipment at key power plants was old, obsolete and in horrible condition and simply stopped working properly, triggering a nationwide blackout. In addition, the situation was exacerbated by water levels being extremely low at some key damns and that is no one’s fault. But ICE was less than forthright about the whole deal and that was not fair to the people and businesses that rely on their service. But that is the danger of a monopoly. They don’t have to be fair. Does it sound like I am complaining? I guess so. This blog is about the reasons I love Costa Rica, so I guess this post about ICE is a little sarcastic on my part. Like I am joining forces with the ex-patriot complaining jackasses. I’ll take ICE any day over that crowd. However, I will say thank God for the passage of the TLC and I hope that one day (soon, maybe) Costa Rica will have an alternative. And to ICE I say, don’t get all huffy about that, competition is good. Competition makes us better. It makes us realize that folks have a choice, so we’d better do what it takes to help them decide to choose us. Costa Ricans deserve to have that choice when it comes to who provides their phone service.
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