www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Prepaid Cell Phones will no longer expire
Published in La Nacion

Customers with Kölbi prepaid cell phones will no longer lose their lines for failing to reload their accounts, and can expect their phones to work for up to 120 days without making a payment. This new regulation applies to both existing customers and new service connection

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

Nice... who knew all that was needed was a little competition in the picture. Once ICE started to sense their money going into somebody else's pocket, they are making changes.

I can't wait until those ball washin bastards go out of business......OH and Amnet too....



the DR



<-----OG tired of ICE's bull$h*t.......

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“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity"

I have heard talk that they want to put a monthly charge and other talk that you can buy minutes to the USA for 4 cents a minute.
Anyone else heard?

I have been getting fliers stuffed in my door and seeing billboards for smaller cable companies popping up, I can't wait to see what kind of competition gets going between amnet, cabletica and the others.

I have also heard that some sort of a phone operation is moving into where the News Cafe was. May not be true but stranger things have happened.

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

I asked and they said that SIM card would be active for 4 months (120 days) without any additional recharge/adding of minutes.

I think the guy told me even if I do not recharge/add minutes within the 120 day time frame, that purchasing a new SIM card for the same phone would be 3,000 colones.

Phone proved to be a wise investment for scheduling/updating/chatting up the chicas.

Are you saying they are selliing "MINUTES" if so how many colons per minutes are there? OR is this term they used because you were a gringo?

They don't sell minutes. They reload amounts to your balance, not minutes.

But since it's ¢40 per minute (peak time 5am-midnight), a recharge of ¢2000 will give you 50 minutes.

I also verified the 120 days expiration period. Basically, after 120 days of no recharges, your number is lost and can't be re-activated. It doesn't get suspended and can be re-activated as was reported.

Anybody know anything about the Int'l SIM, i've been emailing them without response. Going next week, I'll check it out.

Yes, I saw their int'l prepaid "plans" while I was waiting to speak to the rep on Monday. They sell them for $6 (3k), 10 (5k), and 20 (10k). The $6 one gives you 20 minutes to the US. That's about the same thing you'd get if you called on a regular SIM without any int'l plan. The regular rate is about ¢160/min. With this plan, it's 150/min, not much of a deal.

Orange, did you figuyre out if the same was true for texting CR to US? I think it is 7 cents US per text 150 characters at normal rate

Nope, never needed that service so wouldn't know.

I was told the same thing in March 2012 at the airport ICE booth. I have my plastic credit card sized piece that contained the SIM card, ID #, PIN #, and PUK #. I also have my receipt.

You can reload the SIM card here.
https://apps.grupoice.com/VEPPlusWeb/RecargaPrePagoMovilFormController.sp

This may seem obvious to most but due to their strict no-refund policy, I wanted to clarify one item. If you follow the link above and enter your CR phone #, it wants you to enter "TOTAL". It does not specify if Total means Colones, Minutes, or US Dollars. The last thing I want to do is add $5,000 in credits (or 5,000 minutes) when I'm trying to add 5,000 colones.

{edit}

The above link is suddenly acting up for me. I don't know if they suddenly blocked my IP address or if they are down for maintenance.

I found it by using the following steps.
Using Google Chrome (since it translates the page into English)...
Go to http://www.grupoice.com/wps/portal/kolbi_prepago_kits
From the menu select Prepaid Kolbi, then Reloads, then Recharge Online Here
Enter your phone number
It will tell you your name
You then select the Total amount you want to add to the card (in Colones)
Agree to Terms & enter your Visa or Mastercard info.

Nice site, I was using a different one from Master Pago to recharge and it can be a pain in the ass. They are looking for colones in the amount section. So if you put in $500 you'll get roughly a dollar worth of credit. Need to rcharge once every 4 months or so they told me at the ICE office in Quepos and at the Kolbi desk at the airport, and as reported above. Even only 100 colones, or supposedly you'll lose your balance and your number. Why if you've got plenty of $$ in the account.?
The Master Pago site won't take that small of an amount, but it has taken 500 colones from me. Thanks for steering me to this site.