Syniverse opens office in San José suburb, plans to hire 70 telecom workers

A telecommunications company celebrated the opening of its first office in Costa Rica, hoping to bring superior mobile services to the growing Latin American market.

Syniverse marked the Wednesday opening of a new office in Escazú, a southwestern San José suburb, with a visit from Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX) head, Anabel González.

The company’s main focus is allowing mobile devices in the region, such as cellphones and smartphones, to operate with each other. An example is coordinating cellphone roaming for those traveling internationally.

CEO Jeff Gordon explained Syniverse’s business as coordinating these services for mobile carriers, such as Claro, Movistar and Kölbi.

“We don’t sell directly to end customers, we sell to large businesses,” Gordon said in an interview. “When they need that kind of support on a complex issue, they don’t want to have to be fighting time zone issues, or cultural issues, they want to be able to get right down to business.”

Gordon said one of the company’s major challenges in Latin America will be coordinating services such as roaming on cellphone plans that are prepaid, which is the kind of plan most subscribers in Costa Rica prefer.

Syniverse said they invested $2.3 million in the new office and plan to hire 70 people in 2013 for the central office.

Syniverse’s Costa Rica site is nestled in an office park along Avenida Escazú, along with many other international corporations such as Starbucks, McDonald’s and Apple. The office had many of trappings of modern technology companies such as open workspaces and clear glass walls. Syniverse is a global company headquartered in Tampa, Florida, created in 1987.

COMEX’s minister cut a ceremonial ribbon and toured the new offices.

“With the opening of the telecommunications sector, Costa Rica has broadened and improved its appeal to attract direct foreign investment,” González said at the event. “This has contributed to the country becoming a leader in Latin America and at the global level in the giving and export of high technology services.”

Gordon said he hopes Syniverse’s foothold in Costa Rica can be the beginning of a growing telecommunications sector in the country.

“It represents an opportunity for people, perhaps coming out of engineering school in Costa Rica, to get to work with, literally, some of the world’s leading experts in telecommunications,” Gordon said.