New Phone Book Sparks Contract Dispute

THE 2005 phone books publishedrecently by Verizon do not comply withthe agreement between that company andthe Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE),according to ICE officials, who are in acontract dispute with the U.S.-based company.Institute spokeswoman RosemaryMonge said Verizon made a “unilateraldecision” to print separate directories forSan José and for the country’s other sixprovinces, a decision that the institute didnot authorize. In previous years, namesand numbers from all provinces have beenincluded in a single white pages edition,Monge said.Even though they have the ICE logoon their cover, the new phone books arenot authorized by the institute, which hasbegun “the process of resolving the contract,”according to an institute statement.The institute’s national phone directoryservice, which can be reached by dialing113, is unaffected by the dispute, thestatement said.Melvin Andújar, Verizon’s generalmanager for Costa Rica, said Verizon presentedthe new phone book structure toICE in May 2004, and went ahead withthe new books when ICE made noresponse, Al Día reported.