Be cautious with this one. First of all she can cancel the line anytime she wants. Secondly she has to go ICE to deal with any issues or changes to the line(like the ability to make or recieve international calls.)

And thirdly they are about 3 months behind in the bill for my phone . I paid my bill the other day and it was for June. So this line probably has 3 months charges on it.

The deposit for the line is 25$ and I am sure she would at least want that upfront.

ICE says in jan it will have 300,000 new lines.

Plus you need an unlocked GSM cell phone with the right frequency. If the phone is a triband you should be alright.

The 300k lines are already spoken for. My guess is that those lines will be gone by end of Feb next year.

While the phone lines will go quickly it is highly speculative to come up with a date. More importantly where did you get the information that the lines are already spoken for? ICE has had waiting lists every time they are waiting for new lines to become available but they never have approached 300,000 or anything close to that number.

I'm just guessing that the lines at ICE will be so long, and the demand so high, that I doubt that people like me will be able to get a line.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but it's still a guess...

This is going to sound harsh, because the written word has no way to be softened, but is meant as a general comment not aimed at you specifically.

As long as there are Costa Ricans and residents who are waiting for a cell phone line I really am not concerned that the occasional visitor is unable to get a cell phone line. For every phone line being held by the occasional visitor there is a Costa Rican who can not get a line. There is always the option of renting one for the length of your stay but for the average Costa Rican that is not a viable option. The rental market is geared to short term rentals to visitors not for the long term.

And before anyone asks....yes I have a cell phone so I am not waiting to get one of the new lines.