Costa Rica's legislative assembly approved the second and final version of the new telecommunications law on Wednesday, the government said on its website.
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A total of 35 legislators of 49 present during a plenary session voted in favor of the law, which will now be sent to the president's office for the regulations to be drawn up.
The bill proposes adjustments to legislation to accommodate liberalization of the telecoms market, allowing new entrants to compete with state telecoms monopoly ICE in the mobile telephony and internet services markets.
"We have taken one of the most important steps to ensure modernity in Costa Rica," the country's minister to the presidency, Rodrigo Arias said.
Reform is one of the requirements for the implementation of the Central America-Dominican Republic free trade agreement (Cafta-DR) with the US, which Costa Rica approved by a narrow margin in a public referendum last October.
The new law details the cost of the canon to be paid by new entrants for use of spectrum, guarantees universal access that would be financed by a national telecommunications fund, and details interconnection rates as well as rates that can be charged by new competitors.
Parallel to the telecoms reform bill is another bill to allow changes within ICE, to strengthen it in order to face the incoming competition.
In addition, the regulations that will need to be put in place for market liberalization are still being drawn up. The government is also due to create a new telecoms authority called Sutel within the existing public utilities regulator Aresep.
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Alexander Mora, president of Costa Rica's IT and telecoms association Camtic, told BNamericas that while the telecoms law is almost written in stone, the next phase - defining the small print through the regulations - is critical.
Some 33 regulations have to be defined by energy, environment and telecommunications minister Roberto Dobles, minister to the presidency Rodrigo Arias and the president himself Oscar Arias, a process that should take at least six months from the moment the law is published in the official gazette, Mora said.
The executive added that the regulations will not be approved until the ICE strengthening bill has also been approved.
Mora said that the private sector is content with the approval but added the Costa Rican legal system is complex which could allow for minorities to appeal against regulations that have loopholes in them and lead to long legal battles that only damage the sector.
For that reason Mora said he hopes the government will take its time to draw up the regulations and ensure they are tight.
"It's important that things are carried out in an ordered and methodical fashion. There is a saying that 'the devil is in the details,' so we must be careful that the regulations do not contain elements that can be contested and that they are complete. The same applies to the free trade agreement laws," Mora said.
