Ever since communications leviathan ICE was resigned to loosen its iron grip of the wireless spectrum in Costa Rica, The Costa Rica Star has dutifully followed the events, trying to make sense of it all. Bill Anderson, our resident tech guru and former U.S. Air Force comms officer has weighed in with his valuable expertise with a series of articles that demystify the world of electronic personal communications in the 21^st century. The only thing missing was a first-person account of customer service and pricing, as well as street-level usage report. Luckily for us, the tiny and woefully overlooked digital news daily La Fragua commissioned Don Jose Rodolfo Ibarra to undertake the arduous process of setting off with a TuYo Movil SIM chip and visiting the retail operations of Claro, Kolbi, and Movistar.

Here’s a recap of Don Jose Rodolfo’s extremely detailed wireless journey, which La Fragua published over two lengthy articles. The Costa Rica Star added its part by testing a Claro 128K chip for voice calls and really cheap Internet use. We hope you find this information as valuable as we did:

Technical Information

• Don Jose Rodolfo primarily tested a Nokia X6 (3G), and sporadically a Sharp Sidekick and an old Motorola model he did not specify.
• He conducted the testing over a period of one month, between November 13 and December 12 last year.
• He tested the different wireless carriers in Downtown San Jose, La Sabana, Escazu, Zapote, Barreal de Heredia, Lagunilla, Real Cariari Mall, Downtown Cartago, and Tres Rios.
• The Costa Rica Star tested the Claro 128K SIM chip on a DWM-152 D-Link HSDPA USB wireless modem over a DIR 412 mobile wireless router last week. The voice test was performed with the ubiquitous Nokia 2730 (a favorite among Ticos).

Movistar

Don Jose Rodolfo acquired a prepaid Movistar SIM chip for 2,500 colones at one of their new stores in San Jose. He was offered to look at available shiny handsets and he respectfully declined. He was asked for name, address and ID (cedula). He walked out with the SIM chip and 1,000 free text messages in 15 minutes.

Upon testing SMS functionality, Don Jose Rodolfo discovered that Movistar and Claro did not talk to each other. Voice calls were normal. He was also surprised at the expense of prepaid Internet service: 400 colones per day! He called Customer Service in Guatemala, and the agent could not justify the high cost, nor did he understand the value of 400 colones. Since that time, Movistar’s Internet access fees are 100 colones less per day, still higher than the other services.

One neat thing that Don Jose Rodolfo noticed was the option of turning Caller ID privacy on or off by simply preceding the phone number to be dialed with #30#. The reported signal strength and call quality was virtually the same as Kolbi’s.

Claro

On a busy Sunday night, Don Jose Rodolfo was greeted by a curvaceous model at a Claro retail store in Downtown San Jose. He had to draw a numbered ticket and wait in long line, similar to Banco Nacional. Two hours later he sat in front of a business-like young man who asked for ID and had him fill out a form to take advantage of the prepaid offer: 2,500 colones per month, with two months paid in advance, grants Claro prepaid subscribers a credit of 4,000 colones.

Don Jose Rodolfo was surprised to find out that the activation SMS, customer service calls, and information text messages came at a cost. The transaction took him 2 hours and 33 minutes.

The Costa Rica Star purchased a Claro 128K chip at a pulperia in Pavas for 2,500. No questions, no ID required. The young man minding the shop scribbled vague Internet activation instructions in a dirty napkin, which can be found in great detail here.

Inserting the chip in a Nokia 2730 did not require a PIN entry. The on-screen menu includes a SIM-based Windows Live Messenger that requires no Internet subscription and is free for all incoming communications, but 6 colones for outgoing messages.

Don Jose Rodolfo and The Costa Rica Star experienced a similar experience in terms of voice quality using Claro in the Central Valley: noticeable echo, like using Skype over a bad Internet connection. The quality improved tenfold, however, within reasonable range of a Claro antenna.

There are two basic Internet options: texting IB to the number 444 grants 24 hours of 512 Kbps access, which can be rationed by sending the message FIN and reactivating at a later time. The actual downstream/upstream speeds are closer to 220/80 than the advertised 512 Kbps, but at 100 colones for 24 hours, no self-respecting Tico should complain. Texting IA to the number 444 grants 24 hours of 1.5 Mbps access, which in reality works out to about 700/120 for 300 colones. It bears mentioning here that The Costa Rica Star conducted these tests within a kilometer of an imposing Claro antenna, but consulting the signal strength map on the company’s site turned out to be very accurate.

With Claro’s basic wireless Internet you can’t send e-mail from desktop clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple OS X Mail, Zimbra, Eudora, etc. The Transport Layer security is not being supported. You have to stick to web-based mail, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.

Kolbi-ICE

Don Jose Rodolfo sent his daughter to obtain a prepaid chip from an authorized Kolbi retailer, under stern warnings from the clerk that her signature should appear exactly like on the cedula. She was done in 10 minutes, but without the benefit of a manual like Claro or Movistar.

The problem with Kolbi should be familiar to many of our readers. You get zero customer service unless the handset was purchased from ICE. The GSM 2G network is virtually dead, and during times of heavy network load the voice and Internet suffer greatly. Not even SMS functionality is safe in dead spots or during times of heavy network load. Kolbi’s 3G signal is far superior to Claro’s, and it is the same as Movistar, TuYo and FullMovil.

The Kolbi dead spots are well-published by ICE (you can find them in red here), but the Claro maps seem to be more accurate. The network load issue is bound to continue, especially now that we know that ICE has a whopping 90 percent of the wireless market, as we reported in our recent Week in Review.

Conclusion

Customer service is lacking at all three carriers, Movistar is a bit overpriced, Kolbi is oversubscribed, and Claro works like a charm if you are close to their antennas. The last word from Don Jose Rodolfo is: take advantage of the wireless services offered at the pulperias, take customer service with a grain of salt, and always read the fine print of any special offer.