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TS News - Wireless Cable Launchs In Costa Rica

TELE-satellit News, 29 September 1996

Wireless Cable Launchs In Costa Rica
  SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, 96/09/29 (TS) -- Tel-Com Wireless Cable TV
Corporation, on Thursday announced that its San Jose, Costa Rica based
subsidiary, TelePlus S.A. has launched its new, 26-channel pay-television
service in Costa Rica, including seven wireless cable channels and 19 local
broadcast channels.

  The new service features primarily Spanish language programming and is
available to the majority of the San Jose Central Valley's estimated 750,000
line-of-sight households.

  TelePlus is Costa Rica's exclusive provider of wireless cable television.
It has around 1,700 existing subscribers. According to the announcement by
Tel-Com Wireless President and Chief Executive Officer Fernand L. Duquette,
the company has already received more than 1,000 requests for additional
information on the new service, despite very limited marketing efforts to date.

  The new service packages are available for the equivalent of US$15 for the
"standard" offering of 24 channels, including 19 local broadcast channels,
and US$19.50 for a 26 channel package including two additional "premium"
channels. These rates represent a cost savings of approximately 25 to 35
percent from the rates charged by local cable operators.

  "The new service includes almost entirely Spanish speaking programming,
such as HBO-Ole, Prime Deportiva, CineLatino, Warner Brothers, Cinemax,
Spice and Sony Entertainment," he added. "This `catering to the masses'
approach is a much different strategy than the approach taken by our
hard-wire cable competition. A large component of the cable operators'
offerings are English speaking, aimed at the affluent members of the society.




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