Costa Rica cell phone dilemma

Welcome on Expat.com juikk

I have moved your discussion to Costa Rica forum for effective networking. I hope that other members will comment on this issue soon.

Regards

"these phones may or may not function with ICE"
hahaha Welcome to your 1st experience with ICE and Costa Rica. You can expect all the following experiences with ICE to follow a similar path of utter confusion and frustration. You have to laugh at it to keep from going crazy!

I'm using an iPhone, jailbroken and unlocked.

You can buy a prepaid SIM card without needing to be a resident. This will allow you to make local calls or you can buy one for international as well, but no data.

For data plans (wifi), you do need to open up a plan with ICE. This requires being a resident or having a citizen do it for you under their name.

I have heard reports of some prepaid SIM cards that magically gave access to wireless, but every prepaid SIM card I have used has not had magic wireless access. (I hand them out to guests).

The ICE international rates here are not bad, but it will add up quick if you make a lot of calls. So for international calls, I use MagicJack with a US# and my laptop.

I may get the unlimited data SIM. I'm looking at the prices on
portal.grupoice.com/wps/wcm/connect/web+content/Esp/CatTelecom/movil/kDatos

and I see this:

kölbi internet ilimitado - Velocidad hasta 1 Mbps (2) - $ 27.12 i.v.i.

What does "$ 27.12 i.v.i." mean? $27 US dollars?

yes, oddly enough, ICE quotes internet subscription prices in US dollars.  The "ivi" part means tax is included in that price.

Thanks! Funny they post it in USD. Cheers, Gary

Is garybenton's post a solution to the question GelassiGirl originally asked about?  It looks like Gary is in Costa Rica so do different rules apply for you (based on comment from erin that you must be resident to get a data plan), or can anyone just show up with a jailbroken / unlocked phone, or a BB world phone, buy a SIM, and get the data plan added?

I have a business colleague who will be travelling to Costa Rica shortly, so tyring to figure out what is needed for him to be able to get reliable cellular data access.  Since I don't speak, read, or write spanish, the ICE web site doesn't really help me that much (and Google Translate doesn't help much with it either).

I'm not a resident yet, and from what I've read, one has to be a resident to get a data SIM. Can anyone confirm or deny? I'd like to get a data SIM, but may have to pay a willing resident to get one for me.

I got a SIM for voice calls at the airport. It was easy and relative to the US, inexpensive.

For data plans (wifi), you do need to open up a plan with ICE. This requires being a resident or having a citizen/resident do it for you under their name.

Unless things have changed which I doubt, a prepaid SIM card is easily available
At the airport which included 3G data, there was no residency requirements.
FYI, wifi is something different than 3G data. I used an unlocked iPhone 3GS..

My prepaid kolbi sim card would last about 3 weeks and cost about 20usd to refill.
I was in cr as of April of 2011... Good luck

I used the NetTalk app for my Android phone to make free WIFI calls from Mexico to the U.S. recently. Can anyone recommend a similar Android app that will allow me to make free WIFI calls from Costa Rica to the U.S.?

Thanks
Steve

I'm in Costa Rica now and came down from the US, you need a phone that operates on the following bands (see gsmarena.com/network-bands.php3):

GSM 1800
UMTS 850 (this includes HSDPA)

To answer the original question, any smartphone that operates on the foregoing bands will work here.  The rub is trying to determine which phones those are.

my experience is that all AT&T cell phones cover these bands because AT&T operates on those frequencies in the states.  T-Mobile does not, however, so you'd need to confirm that the particular phone operates on the above bands before expecting it to work in CR.  Also, most phones will need to be unlocked.

I personally have a Samsung A817 (unlocked) and an Iphone 3G (jailbroken and unlocked) from AT&T and have not had problems with either.  The Iphone is the surest bet because it operates on pretty much every band, but I recommend visiting the following site and doing a search:  gsmarena.com

go to the bottom of the left-side nav menu and select "phone finder".  from there, you can filter by GSM and UMTS frequency.  Be aware that some phones that will be listed have different versions (with different frequencies) depending on the country they came from.  that's why I stuck with AT&T phones that I could find in the search results because they operate on the proper frequencies.

to get the data plan on the pre-paid SIM, you simply send a text message to activate it.  you can pay daily, weekly, monthly - all for different prices.  once you get the SIM card, you send a text to a specific # (6060, I believe) with "daily" or "weekly" or similar time-frame as the subject line (there is a brochure you can get with specific directions from any phone shop).  you will receive a return text saying your data plan is activated for the specified time period (i.e., one day, one week, etc.), and in theory, you now have access to 3G data.  it didn't work for me, but I didn't spend much effort trying to get it to work cause I didn't care about it - phone and text is enough for me.  I suspect it's a settings issue, so note that often times you need to play around with the phone settings for it to work correctly.  monkeying with the phone settings isn't for everyone, especially since once you insert the ICE/Kolbi SIM, many things are in Spanish.  In any event, that's how the data plan works on the pre-paid SIM.

An alternative is just buying a very cheap cell phone when you arrive - maybe $10 US - along with the pre-paid SIM.  you can buy them in almost any local shop (along with the SIM card - you don't have to get this at the airport kiosk anymore), but this obviously won't be a smartphone. but if all you need is phone and text, it'll get the job done.  I'm not sure what, if any, smartphones may be purchased down here but I suspect they are expensive if they are available.

My final word is that fancy phones are the target of thieves and stick-up-kids so having them at all can put you at risk.  a common occurrence is for a car of armed men to pull up to a bus stop, get out, and take everyone's money, phones, etc. at gun point.  so consider whether you actually need a smartphone before planning on using one here.

I know I'm probably going to sound like a technical moron, which is fair, since I basically am.... but --- I have an iPhone 3GS that I'd like to bring with me. So, that means I should have it jailbroken and unlocked. Do I need to keep my USA AT&T account for my iPhone active once I move to CR or will it simply work free of carrier if I just buy one of these pre-paid SIMS at the airport? If I do need to keep my account open with AT&T, how should I modify my existing full data/phone package to reflect my needs once I'm living in CR? I suppose I can lose the data plan portion, right? I'm so confused....

Thanks,
J

There is another possibility while visiting depending on your needs. I was in CR for about 8 months and rented a phone. Many of the hotels have people that will come to the hotel and rent you a phone already set up for the country and you can get a variety of plans phone, data and text. I used whynotphones.com and it worked out well for me. If you are willing to pay in advance for several months the cost can be quite a bit lower than you might pay for in the states and I was able to text back and forth to the US for just the monthly fee.
I would reiterate what the person above said as well though, if you are visiting and planning to carry your phone it definitely makes you a target for crime. It happens often as smart phones are not an everyday thing. If you're fortunate nothing will happen but carrying something worth several hundred dollars on the street where a working person makes $2 an hour and using it invites theft.
Have a wonderful trip down and good luck with the phone.

Hello iguanamom and welcome to Expat.com!

Thank you for sharing.

Aurélie

This is great news.  I am taking my family to CR in a couple days and we have an unlocked iPhone 3GS.  Where did you get the SIM card that allows for cell and data service?  We are flying into San Jose, so I am assuming its purchasable there but what is the name of the vendor.

Thanks for your help!

The vendor is ICE.
As mentioned, depending on your location and if you are trying to use the internet, the speed may be very s-l-o-w!

Thought I'd chime in.
I'm no expert but I can tell you my own experience.

I have a Samsung Exhibit II 4G android phone.
I went to CR last year and I had to hunt all over for anyone who would unlock it at a reasonable price. I finally found a phone store down near the old redlight district, not Gringo Gulch but the old redlight district - and they unlocked it for me BUT I waited like an hour and a half for them to do it, the people weren't nice at all, they seemed very sleazy and frankly I was concerned they had bricked my phone because I kept asking when it would re ready and they kept saying "5 minutes" and this went on for an hour and a half or so. I think I was pretty patient. I didn't start asking til after half an hour (they had originally told me "15 minutes") and then I asked again about every 20 minutes or so. If they'd just told me up front "an hour or two" I would have gone and come back. But then again it looked like a sleazy place with weasely people, so I may not have wanted to trust them. I might have come back and they'd have said "what phone??" I am usually very trusting of places that do business in  Costa Rica but this place really seemed sleazy.

Anyway, they did finally unlock it and put the ICE sim card in it. Think it cost me around $30 but I don't really remember - it might have been more.

I would therefore highly recommend you get your phone unlocked in the USA or wherever you live, before you go!

Now, apparently when they put the SIM card in it they made it a "private number" and that caused problems. Why?
Because my Tico friends told me that usually a private # is only for criminals and most people don't answer when they see their phone say "Private #" instead of a name. So when they put your SIM card in don't let them make it a private # or else you will have to go to ICE to change it.

It really wasn't too bad - they did it for free.
I had to go through the usual "wait in 3 lines" type deal at ICE, and I'd say the whole thing took about 30 min or so, maybe a little more.

After that it worked great, and I could get the internet in some places with WIFI.
However, wifi is not like it is here in California. That is, it is hard to find outside of San Jose and even when it was available sometimes I couldn't get it to work. Other times it did work. So it was generally not very reliable in terms of internet data. In a lot of places the wifi doesn't seem to work.

However the phone service itself was great, I could call from anywhere.

For long distance from Costa Rica, get the skype app. As to the phone cards use the prepaid, they're cheap and anyone can buy  them EVERYWHERE. For the SIM card you can get those pretty easily too.

As to buying a phone there "for $10", think again. Maybe this is possible, I don't know. All I know is, the cheapest one I could find was $25 and I asked around quite a few places before I decided to go the unlock phone/ get sim card route. Using your own phone is of course much preferable.

However, do be careful if you use your own phone in Costa Rica!
iPhones are in demand so if you walk around in San Jose with an iPhone you may well get it taken from your hands or pocket. My friend carried his and used it and had no problem, but everyone there warned us about carrying an iphone around in San Jose and carrying our laptops. We did so anyway but we were careful about it. I wouldn't carry an iphone in the shirt pocket or some other easily accessible place. Put it in a front pocket or something, in a case clipped backward inside your pants or something like that. I wouldn't leave it sitting out on a table at a sidewalk cafe either. $500 is a lot of money to an average Tico. Treat it like your wallet. And by the way, using a money belt of the bulk of your money is a very good idea. Pickpockets abound in San Jose'.

Hope this helps.