Cell Phone

[Lewis Thompson]

May I use my cell phone to connect with family in US.?

[Joe]

If you mean can you bring your cell phone from another country and use it in Costa Rica, the answer is NO.
Telecom is highly monopolized by the government here, and there are no (that I know of) roaming agreements with any other countries - you will have to buy a cell phone here and get a contract with ICE if you want cell phone service.

[Russ]

Hi Joe and Lewis, thanks for participating in the forum.

I checked on the ICE site and they say they do offer international roaming.  ICE customers can use their phones to call other ICE mobile customers.   Here is an explanation on their site.

ICE Roaming International Service

Apparently, they are in the process of making reciprocal agreements with other carriers.  I saw Cingular in the U.S., here is a list of countries and carriers.

Reciprocal Roaming Agreements ICE Costa Rica

Rates
The rates applied to International Roaming service vary between countries. At the time of requesting the service, the local carrier will inform the client about its current rates according to destination.


RequirementsMobile customers visiting Costa Rica and attempting to do roaming must make a prior contact with their cellular provider at home in order to obtain roaming service information and its activation.
 

[Ivo]

I had skipped this question some way or the other and just saw it, that's why the  late answer.

You are NOT allowed to use a cell phone that is not bought in Costa Rica, since that's how they collect taxes here. But there is a way around it if you have one of those real expensive cellphones that you have and you don't want to throw it away:
Bring the expensive one with you. Buy the cheapest you can find here in Costa Rica, get it connected when you buy the phone + the line in the store. Once you're out of the store, pull the SIM card out of your newly purchased phone and put it in your old one. Off you go and keep the cheap phone in case your old one breaks down.

Now that we're at it:
You have to be a resident to be able to apply for any phone line, land line or cell phone line. If you are going to purchase a property (with a American European Network realtor of course), you will probably buy the property into a corporation. Ask your realtor or attorney about that. Or when you buy a car, you might buy that into a corporation. You can use the same corporation to get a phone line. If you want to get a phone line even before you are ready to buy a property or car, just go ahead and go to your attorney to get a shelf corporation (around $800) and get your phone line. When you are ready for the car or property, you have the corporation already.

Ivo
Godutch Realty