ICE 3G Data Cards Now Available
Huawei 3G Datacard
The good news is that those waiting to connect a laptop to mobile Internet in Costa Rica can now order a new connection. According to ICE at least 10,000 new data cards are now available for Kolbi 3G Internet, which allows laptop or desktop computers to access the Internet via the cell phone network. The new data cards have been reduced to c22,000 and a unlimited monthly plan is $27.
Unfortunately the maximum bandwidth is just 1MB, which makes the service a poor replacement for ADSL service. In fact the mobile “broadband” offered by ICE is 12 times slower than 4G service, which is now available in all major markets in the United States.
ICE employees have been known to talk customers who request ADSL service into buying Kolbi datacards, which do not always work in certain locations, and provide substantially less stability and bandwidth. The product is much easier for ICE to install because no technicians are required to visit the home or deal with a less than perfect telephone infrastructure. Kolbi also uses a network address scheme that requires fewer public Internet IP addresses, which are in limited supply.
There is also a real possibility that the introduction of some many new connections at once will erode the already limited quality of service. Past experience has shown that the local monopoly is willing to oversaturate a service in order to increase revenue because consumers have no choice.
According to the video 10,000 cards have already been released, and another 20,000 will become available this weekend. In total 70,000 new data cards are expected.
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Filed Under: Expat Living
