According to Germán Sánchez, head of Telecommunication’s Management and Maintenance Network, public phones stopped being a profitable business for the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) due to the boom of mobile phones.
The relentless modernization of telecommunications keeps alive almost 5,000 public telephones located at strategic points and prisons. However, it is unknown how much time they will resist. Nowadays, there are 4.938 payphones, but in early 2013 there were 18,000.
The decline is dramatic and it is suspected that these devices are the main victims in the opening of the telecommunication market.
12% of public telephones are located in prisons, where it is the only legal way for prisoners to make calls.
According to the institute, in order to fix telephones located in prisons, authorities want to implement a plan to replace the existing units for others that monitor in real time when they are out of service.
Public phones are also located in hospitals, schools, Ebais and streets with a great number of pedestrians.