www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I live in Costa Rica part time and do business in the States from there. Right now I live with the power outages, but I am planning for the future.

If you bring your own personal generator and if you are on satellite Internet you should be impervious to the challenges with the Costa Rican infrastructure.

Yes the satellite is pricey, but if your business depends on it, it would seem like a reasonable price to pay for the independence it provides.

After 3+ years living and working online from Costa Rica, I moved to Panama doing the same over 18 months ago. The infrastructure and bandwidth is much more reliable and sustainable in Panama...and CHEAPER. I am set up with 1Gig Internet bandwidth up/down for $75 /month, VOIP with a Florida number and toll free 800 that all ring to my VOIP connection here. Unlimited calls to and from North America cost me $25 per month flat. Calls to most other countries are between 4-11 cents per minute. Panama also has many local VOIP providers which is the easiest way to get a local telephone line with a contract for their VOIP services...at rates very competitive with Vonage and other international carriers. So, for me and my money, Panama is much more "business friendly"...

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All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts...

The reliability of Internet service in Costa Rica can be affected by non governmental agencies as well. RACSA is not always to blame.

This morning when I turned on my computer their was no connection to the Internet. What time during the night it went off I do not know but it came back on about 9:00 AM.

When I pulled up Inside Costa Rica this was on page one:



One of the reasons those who need reliable Internet service for business use satellite.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I modify my statement that 'all' business of any size use RACSA. My point was simply that large businesses such as banks are using it. I was addressing the issue of 'is it safe?'

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

I think the important part from that site that we are missing it that for you $99 per month you get a whopping 500 mb of throughput per 30 day billing cycle. if you pay $199 you get a gigabyte and it only goes up from there.

http://www.net2dish.com/broadband-satel ... peeds.html

I lived there a long time ago during my active duty army years, but it was before the current entrepreneurial business boom. I would have to agree that it would seem that Panama is a better option for living and doing business from afar. Additionally, correrct me if I am wrong, but their pensionado or residencia programs currently allows the importation of vehicles duty free? By contrast I believe in CR taxes on new vehicles are 100% of the purchase price, which pegs my sense of fair play meter in the red.

I also believe that the fun venues in Panama are much more diverse ranging from numerous MPs to nightclubs through the scenes at the various hotels and bars.

One follow-up question I have for those of you working in Costa Rica or Panama is whether you are self employed or working for a corporation?

IF I do it, I will be self employed. So, can I assume from this dialogue that security concerns are unfounded? That is really my biggest issue. As for reliability, if I can get on for 3 hours a day from anywhere then I am ok.

dapanz1