www.CostaRicaTicas.com

It is a galaxy nexus. An S3 would have been no problem but my nexus cannot handle GSM. Happy that Verizon offers this service.

As a backup to my ICE cell (where I get billed each month for use) I bought a pre paid cell number from Moviestar and put in a cheap Nokia. I turn it off unless needed, damn idiots are always sending me a text message about some promotion of theirs.

I am in the exact same circumstance except I have Claro instead of Moviestar. It is a slow week if I only get 4 or 5 messages about some promotion or another. On the plus side some of them are 3000 credit for a payment of 1000 colones.

As soon as number portability is available I am switching my Kolbi fixed plan for a Kolbi prepaid.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

It's always been like that. It's a FCC requirement that all licensees using that LTE spectrum cannot lock their phones.

BTW, all new Verizon phones are world phones which have a dual chip so they can be used on CDMA as well as GSM.

I cut a Claro card and Tigo for my iphone 5 and they both fit fine without any sanding needed.

So you are saying all ATT LTE phones are unlocked by FCC rules? You might want to double check that.

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Voted San Jose's #1 Maripepino

So you are saying all ATT LTE phones are unlocked by FCC rules? You might want to double check that.[/quote]

No they don't use the same LTE spectrum as Verizon..

When you get a SIM card in Costa Rica make sure you ask them NOT to make it a "private number". I got one and they made it a private number and thus my friends who I called were afraid to call me back, they figured I was a salesperson or etc.

I then had to go to ICE to get it changed from a private number to public and that took me 45 min (though it was free).
Just ask them "No lo hace privado, por favor" when you buy the SIM card, or in English, don't make it a private number please.

I thought that was one of those things that you can turn on-off via your phone settings, but maybe I'm wrong. It does seem like alot of calls I get down there or from there up here is blocked.

I am not sure about cell phones but the land lines in Costa Rica do not allow you to switch back and forth from private to public. If you want caller ID you must have ICE set it up and pay 250 colones a month and if you want your number blocked when you make a call again ICE must set it up and they charge you 250 colones a month. Again this is for land lines I an mot sure if the same program works on cell phones. I know my cell phone has caller ID and I did not ask for that and I do not think they charge me monthly for it.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Verizon Iphones will not work in Costa Rica. I had the Kolbi stand in bagage claim in the Airport set me up with a trimmed SIM and it would not work. I was assured by Verizon that the phone was unlocked and I would not have problems with using it out of the US. I then jail broke my Iphone the next day and went to a cell repair place close to HLH, they could not get that phone to work either. I was told it was a $400-$500 US fix to reflash the phone, and it was not guaranteed to work. Luckily I brought a Samsung Galaxy with me and it worked no problems as it was not tied to Verizon. I ended up using Moviestar for my provider, my girlfriend uses Kolbi and she had service when I did not. Bottom line your Iphone will only work with a CR phone number, if it is not a Verizon phone.

My Verizon iPhone 5 worked just fine.. I was using it in CR 2 weeks ago! iPhone 4S should work too.. They are world phones with combo CDMA/GSM chips inside. The iPhone 4 won't work though...

I was using Claro. Sometimes for some strange reason some carriers won't work on some phones.

I bought a SIM card in the SJO airport and used it in my unlocked Sprint iPhone 4s in CR..no issues.

As far as i know VZ sold only CDMA iPhones to start with. Sprint iPhones (4s) were the first ones in the market which worked on both GSM and CDMA networks.

The VZ unlocked iPhone's issues may be related to those models being just CDMA only.

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I die on the day I can't nut 5 times a day.

Mine was an IPhone 4S, I had just received from Verizon 1 1/2 months prior to my visit January 2013.

What error message did you see? Did it just show "No Service"?