www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Hi, I am a newbie to CRT and to posting. (not total newbie to costa rica, been there about 3 times sans family) Want to find out the feasability of renting a cell phone for 2 weeks. I will be there from nov 4 -18. I have a Nextell motorola I776 phone. Not even sure it has a sim card in it. I think the newer ones don't. Any advise on this? I will be in San Jose part of the time and wouldn't mind meeting some other CRTers.
Red

Apparetnly it does have a sim, but Costa Rica it appears doe not support the iden band.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Digital_Enhanced_Network
Scroll down the page and it lists the countries supporting the iden band.

Go on e-bay and buy a quad band unlocked phone, which can be very cheap. It will probably cost you less than renting for two weeks. You can buy a sim and minutes at the airport in CR from what I have read.

Health & happiness to all................

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It's not the size of the wand that put the rabbit in the hat, it's the magic in it!!!

I have had Nextel service for years and taken my i 930 to CR many times.

1st off your phone i 776 is not going to work there. You need the GSM band that some other international Nextel phones have, yours does not. But even with the other band the service is skecthy at best. It will work in and near San Jose. But every where else in the country it is weak at best.

If you intend to change your Nextel to an international one, you will also have to pay an extra fee to Nextel to inable international service.

All in all not worth the effort or expense. Follow Santa's Bro's advise.

You should buy a quad-band GSM phone like any of these models:

Get one on Ebay (new, under $50, US seller): http://desc.shop.ebay.com/Cell-Phones-S ... 86.c0.m283

Hi All,
You've all been very helpful and I took the advise and just ordered an unlocked motorola RAZR V3 quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900 with accesories from E Bay.
I will attempt to get the prepaid sim card at the airport and hopefully post the results of my upcumming (hopefully alot of cumming) trip.
Red

Red,

It is very easy, the ICE booth is in baggage claim. They do all the work (plug in card, test it, etc). I had one problem with my phone. I couldn't send text messages. I was able to receive but not send. I was with Jamrock (smarter than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs) but he couldn't figure it out ( ). Since I use this phone in the US, I didn't want to mess with it.

Now, be careful handing out your number to chicas or calling without number block. They like to call to secure another session (translates to $). Have fun.

Dean

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my first wingman sent me this, how true

" most of the girls down here, lie as a self defense mechanism and to not have to face the truth, thinking most men couldn't accept them knowing the whole truth. Simpler, they may just want men to think they are as perfect as they want to appear to them, trying to hide what they consider to be the ugly truth about themselves. And I may be reading more into it than is there, but I do believe they consider the basis of the lies to be justified."

Thanks Dean,
How do I block the number when calling. I never have done that here at home as no reason to.
Red

It depends on the phone but is usually located in the "Calling Option". You have to find it on your phone.

Dean

_________________
my first wingman sent me this, how true

" most of the girls down here, lie as a self defense mechanism and to not have to face the truth, thinking most men couldn't accept them knowing the whole truth. Simpler, they may just want men to think they are as perfect as they want to appear to them, trying to hide what they consider to be the ugly truth about themselves. And I may be reading more into it than is there, but I do believe they consider the basis of the lies to be justified."

Dean,
Are you sure that you can block the number because an ICE employee told me that pre-paid numbers can't be blocked?

I assumed blocking via the phone worked. I'll test it next time in town.

Dean

_________________
my first wingman sent me this, how true

" most of the girls down here, lie as a self defense mechanism and to not have to face the truth, thinking most men couldn't accept them knowing the whole truth. Simpler, they may just want men to think they are as perfect as they want to appear to them, trying to hide what they consider to be the ugly truth about themselves. And I may be reading more into it than is there, but I do believe they consider the basis of the lies to be justified."

I brought Unlocked SAMSUNG T229, but has a problem with texting also.

_________________
Yo-Eleven!!
Pura Vida!

I'll have to ask Jamrock. He mentioned it to me but it sounded like it would be stored in my phone and mess something up in the US.

Dean

_________________
my first wingman sent me this, how true

" most of the girls down here, lie as a self defense mechanism and to not have to face the truth, thinking most men couldn't accept them knowing the whole truth. Simpler, they may just want men to think they are as perfect as they want to appear to them, trying to hide what they consider to be the ugly truth about themselves. And I may be reading more into it than is there, but I do believe they consider the basis of the lies to be justified."

I found some samsung codes on couple of sites.
http://forums.mobiledia.com/topic1208-0-asc-40.html\
http://www.messiphone.com/mobile-secret ... rets2.html

I wonder if I have to do either:
#*7763# - SMS bearer CS {ACTIVATED/DEACTIVATED}
or
#*7762# = SMS Brearer CS (Activate or Deactivate)
in order to unlock SMS setting...

The phone came with this:
incert sim
*2767*3855# = E2P Full Reset - reboot
#7465625*638*00000000*00000000#
restart
#7465625*638*00000000#
*7465625# to check all locks

calling part works well after these.

_________________
Yo-Eleven!!
Pura Vida!

Yupa,

Jam started all that jibberish with me. There was something that needed to be entered. I figure, go to a cell store with a cute chica and let her figure it out.

Dean

_________________
my first wingman sent me this, how true

" most of the girls down here, lie as a self defense mechanism and to not have to face the truth, thinking most men couldn't accept them knowing the whole truth. Simpler, they may just want men to think they are as perfect as they want to appear to them, trying to hide what they consider to be the ugly truth about themselves. And I may be reading more into it than is there, but I do believe they consider the basis of the lies to be justified."

Sounds like a plan to me.
If she's having trouble, I can ask her number to "test the functionality" later

_________________
Yo-Eleven!!
Pura Vida!