September 27, 2011 @ 4:00 am
What Prepaid Cell Phone should i buy to use in Costa Rica?
Question by John: What Prepaid Cell Phone should i buy to use in Costa Rica?
im looking to move to Costa Rica, and i heard that the Phone Company ICE down there is able to activate prepaid phones that i can buy here in the U.S.
what Prepaid phones are recommended?
Best answer:
Answer by tico times directory
The below link should answer a lot of questions about the cell phone service in CR, including ICE links to what phones to buy so you can buy a pre-paid SIM card in CR.
http://ticotimes.com/costa-rica/cell-phone-service-sim
Add your own answer in the comments!
In CR, they have a GSM network that runs on the 1800Mhz band.
Any UNLOCKED GSM phone that runs on 1800 band will work.
Some examples that I’ve used are:
Motorola L7 (my personal phone)
Moto V180/190 –very reliable and not expensive
Moto V551
Moto Razr V3
Moto L6 –make sure it has 1800, some models don’t
Basically, all quadband phones will work in CR. Most tri-band phones will work (i.e. 850/900/1800), and some dual band (i.e. 900/1800)
DO NOT RENT/BUY A SIM FROM ONE OF THOSE WEBSITE/TOURIST TRAPS. Their rates are ridiculously high.
Buy a prepaid SIM card at the airport. There is a small desk in the baggage claim area. It’s is next to carousel #1 against the way near the pay phones and bathrooms.
They sell them in denominations of ยข2500, 5000, and 10000. The rates are 35 colones/min local and 175 colones/min to US, that’s about 7 cents local and 30 cents int’l.
Once your funds run low, you can recharge by buying a recharge card at a store or recharge it with a CC online (I use this to recharge my prepaid SIM): http://masterpago.com/productos/indexprepago.aspx?codOperador=1&codProducto=40
You can buy an new, UNLOCKED, quadband cell on Ebay for as little as $ 40. FYI-buy from a US seller as items from Asia take about 3 weeks to arrive. Plus, US sellers are easier to work with if there are any problems.
Link for Ebay (options selected): http://desc.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=unlocked+cell+phone+1800+-antenna+-smartphone+-display&_sacat=3312&LH_ItemCondition=1&LH_Price=..75@c&Brand=LG%7CMotorola%7CNokia%7CSamsung&Carrier=Unlocked&LH_PrefLoc=1&_dmpt=Cell_Phones&_odkw=unlocked+cell+phone+1800+-antenna&_osacat=3312&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313&LH_TitleDesc=1
Amazon and I think Walmart also sell new UNLOCKED cell phones that fit the requirements for the CR network.
Email me with any specific questions, I have been to CR almost 40 times.