www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I don't suppose these would work in C.R. would they. I've been thinking of switching from Verizon to ATT/Cingular and buying an IPhone and wondered whether that would work in C.R.

If you have ATT and sign up for the world traveler plan which is above and beyond your normal monthly charges yor phone will work @ $1.99 a minute. It is cheaper to buy International calling cards in CR. I use my laptop to make calls using VOIP while I am in CR @ 8 cents a minute.
Zeus

The specs for the iphone show that it is a
GSM
Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
and cingular has a roaming agreement wioth ICE
so it should work fine as long as you activate your international roaming before you leave...

I use mine there. When you are not making a call leave it in flight mode unless you want to receive calls. The way it was explained to me is you will be charged the per minute rate even if you do not answer the phone if it rings.

I have ATT too. You need to check your phone when you get to CR to see what works and what doesn't. I have found that if you phone is not on to receive calls your vmail does not always work. My experience of 16 trips in the last 2 years has proven the way my ATT phone works in CR can be inconsistent. The only way the phone works for sure is to leave it on 24/7. Expensive but consistent if you have to have a phone while in CR.

Also on the weekend people calling you will get the all lines are busy in spanish at some point. Guaranteed.

The problem is that Costa Rica's phone company, ICE, has only begun to implement GSM in the last few years, and they've been rolling out very slowly. You will find GSM coverage to be VERY spotty. You might be sitting in one place and watch the bars go from 4 to 2 to 1 then back to 4 again.

The majority of Costa Rican's still use the trusty old TDMA phones. They are higher power, and thus work better. GSM is lower power, which requires ICE to install more towers, which has been slow going.

One thing to keep in mind about your iPhone when traveling, it's constantly connected on the data network if there is one available (supposedly, Costa Rica will be getting this in the near future as well) and you can rack up a ton of data charges, because your "unlimited" data plan isn't covered out of the states.

My iphone works fine there