www.CostaRicaTicas.com

8ball, sorry for our differences but let by-gones go. I hope you're right, I have three numbers down there and am renewing with masterpago but if you're right, that'll save me a monthly pain. Thanks.

Bought a basic phone from the ICE/Kolbi booth at SJO upstairs just in front of the escalators that take you down to Immigration on Nov. 25 for $ 31 USD. Basic phone, charger and 450 minutes loaded (special promotion at the time) all for the $ 31 USD.

SIM card good for 120 days without any additional recharging of minutes. Think the guy said that if SIM card de-activates, that it was only $ 3,000 colones to purchase a new SIM card for same phone.

Think my friend said in Oct. he bought a SIM card at SJO ICE booth for $ 5 USD for use with an unlocked phone he brought with.

I had been doing a lot of time searching and reading trying to learn about unlocking cell phones, and how one does it, how much it costs, and what types of phones are required to do this. I bought my first cell at the age of 27, and really had no understanding of this behind the scenes.

I never thought that my old phones would ever have a purpose--I have an old Motorola V551, but then also remember that I have an HTC Tilt as well (my current iPhone replaced that about 18 months ago--work cells). After searching some threads here, it lead me to a couple of other threads that provided a site where you can pay to get a phone unlocked, which lead me to search more on google. I decided to use the HTC because it was newer, it was quad band, and it has 3G technology-which I learned would be better.

Did you know that you can actually call ATT yourself and they will give you the unlocked code for free? It literally took just minutes.

I can wait until I arrive in CR and load the ICE SIM to unlock it, or I can borrow a friend's SIM card from a different carrier to unlock here in the US. I was warned also that it gives you 5 tries to get it correct or it will permenantly lock the phone to ATT. How hard can it be to enter a few digits??

My company has a business account with ATT, so not sure how it works if you don't have an active account with ATT. I was asked to provide the last 4 digits of the IMEI# of my current phone, then they asked me for the IMEI# of the phone I wanted unlocked, and then asked me why I needed it unlocked. I stated that I was going to be doing some international travel. Within 2 minutes I was given the unlock code.

1-800-331-0500 or you call ATT's International Customer Service line free of charge if you have questions about roaming while you travel. Dial the "plus" symbol on your phone, followed by the phone number 1-916-843-4685 to speak to an ATT representative.

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-an-ATT-Mobile-Phone-Overseas

***I was just about ready to spend money to unlock this phone through some service, but it seems that they are charging you for something that can be done pretty easily yourself. I am curious though, how would I have been able to unlock this phone had I not been active with ATT?

I hope this helps others,

thanks,

USA41

FYI, if you already have a quad band unlocked GSM phone Kolbii ICE is running a promo. For $5, you get a SIM card, and the base 72 minutes of time, plus, the promotion is an additional 6000 Colones of time, which is like another 170 minutes in-country (at 34 colones per minute). Basically, for $5, you will get a Costa Rican number and more time than you would possibly use locally in a 1 week trip. and that's enough time for several calls back to the U.S. if needed as well.

I paid 2500 colones for a SIM Card, and I will be honest I don't even know how many minutes that was for or if this included the promotion of the additional minutes. But I will say that I was using the phone to call local girls, sending texts, and calling the US and I never ran out of minutes during the one week.

I am going back in about 9 weeks after just returning on 12/31, so it will be interesting to see how many minutes I will have and if I will need to add minutes to the SIM car.

USA

I just picked up another SIM card today at the ICE booth by the baggage area. They have $5, 10,15 and 20 cards available. Funny, but I found out that I still had $5 left over from August. Also, like others have suggested, it's best to try the Kobi office in arrivals at the top of the escalators before immigration. They have their systems go down a lot, so try upstairs first, then the kiosk in baggage second. The upstairs one was crashed for md today but the kiosk was good.

8ball,
Not correct. I had a line and it expired. I tried to recharge a few weeks after it expired and it said "Number does not exist". A couple months later I tried the number and somebody picked up.

After it expires, they wait a few months and then give the number away.

Here's a summary of the Prepaid Cell program:
The lowest SIM costs ¢2500 (~$5). (You get 1500 worth of minutes and 1000 is the cost of the SIM.)
The local rate is ¢34/minute (peak-5am to midnight) and 28/min (off-peak-midnight to 5am).
Texts cost ¢1.7 each.
With initilal ¢2500 SIM, you get 44 peak minutes of call time.

Current promotion:
After you purchase and activate a ¢2500 chip, you get an extra ¢6000 worth of airtime. That's another 170+ minutes.

*Only outgoing calls and texts get charged airtime. Unlike the US carriers, ICE doesn't count calls and texts you receive againt your minutes.

Kolbi had a promotion a couple days ago and the response was so great that it overloaded their computers. Many were not able to take advantage of their 2 for 1 sale (buy c2000 and get c4000 of air time). As long as you have credit on your account your sim card nor the time no longer expires. You can add as little as c100 and as much as c10000 to your account and unlike before, there is no longer a time limit for using the time. Funny what competition does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are now at least 4 other companies here selling pre-paid phone time.

Ya, it's sad that I get better cell deals here then back at home, lol. Canada has become an over-protected duopoly between Bell and Rogers.

Anybody know if promotion is still going? I am on the road and can't get to a computer until tomorrow

After making initial purchase of ICE/Kolbi phone on Nov. 25, 2011 from booth upstairs in front of escalators leading down to Immigration at SJO, during next trip I stopped at the same booth and had them load a $1000 colones card to my phone on Feb. 6, 2012.

The guy at the ICE/Kolbi booth now told me that the SIM card was now good for a 5 month period, before it would expire without any additional loading of colones/minutes.

When I bought the phone in Nov., they told me the length of time was 4 months that the SIM card would be good without any additional loading of colones/minutes.

Gentlemen,

Using this thread rather than making a new one. First trip is in 2 weeks. Questions about the phones are these:

Do I have to pay in colonies in purchasing my SIM at the ICE booth? I have unlocked my samsung infuse I997 via unlocked.com as suggested.

Does anyone know the format of the phone number to dial the US?

In receiving calls back to the unlocked cell phone, how to you get the number, does the ICE booth help with that? (I assume it it has a CR phone number) and the country code?

Sorry if this seems completely newbie

The airport ICE booth accepts payment in dollars or colones.
You dial 001 + the US number (e.g. 001 212 555-1212)
ICE will assign you a local CR number along with the SIM card, it'll be on your receipt. If someone from the States wants to call you, they would dial 011 506 + your 8 digit cell phone number (e.g. 011-506-8888-8888). To dial locally, just dial the other party's 8 digit number (no need for the country code).
The only newbie question is the one you don't ask! Good luck on your trip...
mh

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mh