www.CostaRicaTicas.com

This works for the guy just needing good basic phone service while in CR. Go directly to the Kyobi desk as soon as you get off the airplane. You can get your phone and about 4-5 hr airtime for $30.00. You will have it by the time your bagage is on the carousel. I saw so many gringos sitting at bars with an i-phone stuck to there face. Quit playing with toys and play with the women.

Buy a cheap blackberry for $50 -75 and use it for all your trips......everywhere C.R., D.R.,M.D.E.

One Lucky Dogg Transport will have a SIM card waiting for you with a number if you request his airport pickup.

I bought a sturdy Samsung bar on E bay, Claro chip is costing me $ 10 a month only, recharge credits at most stores. I agree loose the pricey I phone and play.

A phone IS a good idea, many chicas use texting more than calls, they are late, lost etc, I would always want one.

Fiedler

Lots of threads on bringing a phone, don't mean to be a jerk, I always try to help, but for the newer guys or guys that haven't dealt with the phone thing yet, punch in cell or cellular on the search feature and you'll get lots and lots of info. San Te is knowledgable so look for his posts and he'll always try to help you with an odd situation.

A few things you will learn, eg, Verizon phone's won't work, a fact. A recent post said any android won't work, don't know.

I can help a little without going through the search thing. The most important thing that wasn't mentioned in this particular thread is that the phone you bring has to be "unlocked" from the carrier it came from (ie, AT& T, etc). Otherwise, the CR sim you get won't work. But starting 26 Jan 13, that becomes illegal in the US without your carrier's permission. I'm sure there's still going to be a way, maybe more expensive then it has in the past, or maybe even if you have it done by a CR cell shop. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/techn ... -1C8086503

Those airport cheapies are a fair deal but I don't know if they are 3g, their website doesn't say if they are for their cheapie pre-pay models that I looked at. Kolbi has a live chat, you may want to try that.

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.a ... al%2Fkolbi

Why 3g? There are places outside of SJ, Manuel Antonio for example, I would be standing with a 2g and get no signal, and my friend with 3g in the same spot would get 3 bars. 8 km away in Quepos proper, 2g no problem. Similar complaints other out of SJ areas noted.

So unless your plans are to stay in the greater San Jose area and have no plans heading to other places out of the Central Valley, defintitely bring an unlocked 3g (if you cannot verify the airport cheapies are 3g).

If you are going to just hang out in SJ, the airport cheapies will be fine even if they are 2g and you can keep it for next trip or sell it or gift it or barter it before you leave because it isn't going to work back home. As a reminder, bring your regular phone for the pre-flight trip down and the post flight trip home.

I have been bringing phones there since CR digitized. Older members will remember that it wasn't that many years ago when only a resident or citizen could get a cell (analog only back then--no texts) and only after being on a long wait list. And the phones were very expensive, as was the service, with often a very poor signal.

It changed alot of Tico lives when the market opened up with digital and pre-pay sims that they can recharge for a quarter at 1000 places. I don't know the %'s, but I'd say a very, very high number of Tico households didn't have a land line in their house, especially out in the boonies, and if so it was often shared by more then one family/person/apt/house. Now they don't need a land line.

Kind of hard to imagine that very many of them had to live that way for all those years after the telephone was introduced in CR until fairly recently.

So, in those days often you couldn't get a call at your hotel (or now text to your cell) about she wants to come over, or is going to be late, or the baby is sick or whatever. You wouldn't hook up or she just wouldn't show up.

Tourists, and the Ticos without a land line, would have to use coins into a pay phone or buy a pre-paid scratch card with a code # to enter into those blue ones you still see, to call someone. Pain in the ass. Or use your hotel phone and get gouged.

I think the cost of a CR text is .004 US cents. That's why they're addicted to texting. All day, all night. And just like home, mostly trivial goofy shit. And that's why when it comes to the most important time, when you are together horizontally, make sure she turns it off.

If you bring an unlocked Iphone or other smart phone, you can buy a sim for a weekly extra so that you can get your mail. At least from Kolbi, not sure about the other two companies.

All newer Verizon 4g LTE phones now come factory unlocked and will provide voice and text with a Prepaid SIM purchased in CR. It has to do with an agreement big red made when they acquireded some of their new LTN spectrum. There are some issues with Data. I haven't fully understood yet but I'm told Data won't work unless the phone is rooted and the APN changed. When I look in settings on my Note II, It appears I can change my APN but I haven't had the courage to test it out. Not anxious to brick it just yet. Folks have various answers to this when I ask.

On the legality of unlocking, It was always illegal under DMCA until 2012 when exemptionsions were granted by LC. One for Rooting which expires in 2015 and the other for unlocking which expired on 26 Jan 2013. That exemption lasted less than a year. We unlocked phones before the exemption and it will go on after it. The most likely impact will be commercial unlockers. I doubt anyone will attempt to pursue the little guy a la RIAA attempts to control music pirating. Seen any locked recordings these days???

I stand corrected. I meant the older Verizon's would not work.

I see from the above post that the newer smart phone Verizon's apparently can, maybe with issues re: data transmission, if you know what you're doing (or the Kolbi desk and they're pretty smart) re the settings.

Keep the board posted what happens when you bring your late model Verizon to CR.