Cell Towers Fail to Communicate

Like little old ladies in a fracticious flower club, some cell towers in the former phone monopoly ICE network are not speaking to one another. This design problem means that a mobile phone user finds his call cut when he passes from one area to another.

Granted, phone users cruising down a national highway should not be calling while driving, but this should not be happening with second and third generation GSM technology.

The troubled system further underscores doubts about ICE's capacity to compete with their Claro and Movistar competition when their infrastructure is ready to go on line.

The trouble is with the towers' GSM handover technology allowing call transfer from one tower to another. It is especially bad with the latest technology such as smart phones.

The problem seems to be a lack of handover capacity between the 3G and GSM networks and is different than the problems that during the last two months of last year and the first two months of this year, caused the systems to shut down completely.

SUTEL, the licensing agency, promises a detailed report on the problem within the next few weeks.