Not every cell phone works in Costa Rica. Before coming to Costa Rica, you can verify that your phone meets the necessary requirements.

It must support GSM, as CDMA and LTE phones do not work here. It must support the 1800 Mhz band. Your phones user manual should contain this information in the specifications section. For example, a quad-band phone would appear as GSM 850/900/1800/1900.

The CETC Telecommunications site provides a list of phones that are certified to work in Costa Rica. The site is in Spanish, and Google Translate does not seem to work on this site. For checking certifications, you don’t need to know Spanish. Just select the cell phone manufacturer in the left column. This takes you to a page that shows all cell phones certified to work in Costa Rica, by that manufacturer. You need to know the model number of your phone, since a manufacturer often produces several different models under the same name. Not finding your phone in this list increases the possibility that it may not work in Costa Rica.

The phone must be unlocked, so that you can change carriers, when you change the SIM card. Before unlocking your phone, you need to make sure that you can get access to the SIM card. Some Verizon GSM phones, such as the iPhone 4, hide the SIM card under a metal plate. For these phones, you cannot get access to the SIM card without dismantling the phone.

The chances of getting your carrier to give you the unlock code is very small. A Google search for “cell phone unlock codes” gives you a long list of sites. To get an unlock code, you will need to know the phone’s IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. While the number exists on the label under the battery, you can also get it by dialing *#06#. It is a 15 digit number that uniquely identifies your phone. The unlock site uses this number to create the unlock code for your phone. Depending on your carrier and the phone, you may have to pay a fee for the unlock code.

Of all the VOIP (Voice Over IP) service I have tested, Skype is the easiest to install and setup. You just need to download the Skype application to your phone, create a Skype account, and add some money to the account. You don’t need to add a lot of money to the account, as you can always add more. I used Skype to call Costa Rica, before moving here. I now use Skype to call the US.

Your phone should now be ready for your visit to Costa Rica. Once you arrive at the airport, you can purchase a Pay-As-You-Go SIM card at the ICE (Kolbi) booth in the baggage claim area. You are not just buying a SIM card, you are charging the card based on the amount you pay. You can purchase a card for 2,500 colones ($5), 5,000 colones $(10), or 10,000 colones ($20). You can recharge the phone using MASTER Pago, or by purchasing 500 colones or 1,000 colones recharge cards at any market.

The standard SIM card is for phone calls and text messaging. If you have a smartphone, you need to be sure to get a SIM card that has the data service enabled. Kolbi offers four prepaid plans: daily 512kbs (200 colones), weekly 512kbs (2300 colones), 15 day 1mps (4500 colones) and monthly (9000 colones). To activate a plan just send a text message to 6060 with the message dia, semana, quince, or mes. Kolbi will deduct the balance from your SIM card, and send a reply message. To check the balance on your card, just send a text message to 1150 with no message. You will get a return message with your current balance.

Costa Rica only offers 3G (GSM) service with high speed download. The actual speed depends on the network loading at that time, and usually is well below the purchased rate. As smartphone usage increases in Costa Rica, so does the load on the cell network. For faster Internet speeds, you can always connect your phone to a WiFi network.