www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Going to be in CR for a few months. Will need to telephone the US daily. Will have my laptop and blackberry. All advice would be appreciated.

Use the search function, there are several long threads on this.

Keywords "telephone" "ICE" "magicjack" "vonage" "Cellular"

Some hotels have VOIP telephone service and charge about 25 cents per minute, but most don't.

You can buy pre-paid calling cards. They say "199"on them. They come in denominations of ¢1,000, ¢3,000, and ¢5,000. You can get a ¢5,000 ($9) card, which will give you about 27-30 minutes of talk time to the US.

Whatever you do, NEVER use a phone that will take a credit card unless your call is worth the 40 bucks you will be charged.

Excellent point. There are phones all over the country that say "LOW RATES TO US" These are the biggest rip-offs. They charge you $40-50 for a 10 minute call. My buddy made 5 short calls in 2006, he got charged over $200. Anytime they ask for your credit card... NEXT!

"MagicJack" VOIP is the answer for me. Cristal clear communications at bargain basement prices!

_________________
"Your love gives me such a thrill
but your love don't pay my bills,
I NEED THE MONEY!" - John Lee Hooker

Disclaimer: The above is merely the opinion of the author unless specific scientific data is included.
Your mileage may vary. https://costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewto ... 978#206978

Ditto !!!!

_________________
You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

On MagicJack, is the rate to Costa Rica 6¢ per minute still?

If you bring the MJ with you to CR, what does it cost to call the US?

If your Blackberry is from AT&T or T-Mobile and will work on 1800Mhz GSM (check the specs for your phone) it will work In CR. I don't believe that Verizon has a roaming deal with ICE. Have international roaming enabled by your carrier and you are good to go. Call rates are likely to be ~$2.00/min or more (check with your carrier) but for light use, what the heck! Caller ID will show your call phone #.

Most hotels have free WiFi so if you have VOIP from something like Yahoo! Messenger on your laptop you can use that from your room. This sort of account will need to be setup before you leave home. Call rates are usually pretty low. Like less than $0.10/min.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

Ditto-3 on Pac and MJ. Any call from CR to USA is just a local for MagicJack and the cost is "nada".

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Hit them fast, Hit them hard and NEXT!
A good chica is like a good carpenter - No wood gets wasted!!!

Zactly! With Magicjack, you chose the area code that the call will "originate" from. I picked an area code within local call rate for my USA family so it costs nothing when they call me. It costs me nothing to call any USA phone number and when I am calling CR from the USA it costs $.06 per minute, I believe. Hard to beat that with a "roaming" cell phone!

_________________
"Your love gives me such a thrill
but your love don't pay my bills,
I NEED THE MONEY!" - John Lee Hooker

Disclaimer: The above is merely the opinion of the author unless specific scientific data is included.
Your mileage may vary. https://costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewto ... 978#206978

Magicjack seems to be the consensus choice, but for other options see the following as quoted to Brother Vegas Bob in another Thread:
www.costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23735 and
www.costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=25573
The latter with a range of options by Brother Prolijo is particularly enlightening.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

When you first receive your Magic Jack, you just plug it in to a USB port on your computer, and it prompts you through the set-up. Takes about 2 mintues total. You can choose your desired area code, and the first 3 digits of the phone number that you want. Then Magic Jack assigns the final 4 digits.

It sells for around $20, and the service costs $20 per year. You can also choose the 5 year option for around $50 or $60. That's all you pay. All calls (from anywhere in the world, except United Arab Emirates) to USA or Canada are free. But it's only for calls TO the U.S. and Canada. I use it all the time in CR, and it works great. As long as you have a high-speed internet connection, it works great. I had a problem in La Fortuna last year, but only because the hotel had dial-up instead of high-speed.

In addition, as others have stated, if you make a lot of calls to certain countries (for example - from the U.S. to CR), you can sign up for their discounted plan for that particular country. And I think Pac is right about it only costing 6 cents per minute. It's all on their website.

I bought mine last February, and I'll be signing up for 5 more years of service very soon.

MG

_________________
You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I use SKYPE on my computer, never have any problems, and pay 2.1 cents per minute. And if the person you are calling has skype, it is free.

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

Mucho Gusto, I'm a bit confused now.....

I thought that the phone number assigned to your MagicJack was a "good" USA phone number: That is, anybody in the USA can call that number while you're in CR and it will work and there will be NO INTERNATIONAL LONG DISTANCE CHARGES to the caller. The most they will end up paying is the cost of a normal "long distance" call within the USA.

However, you note it's only free to call from the MagicJack, while in CR, back to the USA. So when someone in the USA calls that MagicJack, and you're in Costa Rica with it, what does the calling person's bill show when it arrives following their call to you in CR??

_________________
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 16