So many sites on the Internet promote that SIM cards are only available to citizens and legal residents of Costa Rica. This is a myth. Every cell phone service offers both Prepaid (Prepago) and Postpaid (Postpago). Prepaid means that you are pay according to use, and postpaid (contract) means that you get a monthly bill based on different plans. Prepaid SIM cards are available to anyone over the age of 18. Postpaid require that you be a citizen or legal resident. If you don’t have a legal residence in Costa Rica, how are you going to receive a monthly bill. This is no difference than the USA, in this regard.

Many Ticos use Prepago, and the Prepago SIM cards are available from most authorized distributors of ICE Kolbi, Claro, or Movistar. Unlike Postpago, Prepago gives you the freedom to change carriers, or have SIM cards from different carriers. You just need a cell phone that is unlocked and meets the band requirements for the carrier.

If you are using a feature phone (voice and text only), then it just needs to support GSM 1800 band to work with every carrier. Smartphones require an extra band for data. For data service on Claro, you need a pentaband phone that supports the new UTMS 2100 band to get high-speed data service. A quadband smartphone should work with both Kolbi and Movistar.

Coverage area is a big factor in selecting a carrier. Kolbi and Claro have coverage maps, that are available on the Internet. As the oldest carrier, Kolbi has the largest coverage area. As a new service, Claro has its best coverage in the San Jose metropolitan area.

The following table reflects the current prepaid Mobile Internet rates for each of the carriers. The prices are in colones, with 500 colones equal to about $1 US.

Carrier	Speed	Daily	Weekly	15 days	Monthly
Kolbi	512 Kbps	¢200	¢2300
Kolbi	1 Mbps			¢4500	¢9000
Claro	512Kbps	¢100
Claro	1.5Mbps	¢300	¢3500	¢6000
Movistar	512Kbps	¢450	¢2700

The speeds given in the table are the maximum speed. The actual speed depends on the network load, and is normally much less than the rated speed. In Costa Rica, you pay for data rate, as all plans are for unlimited data at the specified data rate. Once you activate the plan, the amount is automatically deducted from the balance on your SIM card. The plans automatically renew, unless there is an insufficient balance on your SIM card. In that case, you just need to charge your SIM card, and reactivate the data plan. This just means sending a text message with the code for the plan to the number specified by the carrier. Easy.

For voice calls and SMS text messages, you need to just install the SIM chip and the phone is ready. When you purchased the phone, you should have received the PIN and PUK codes. You need the PIN code, when you power on the phone. If you enter the wrong code three times, you will need the PUK code to unlock the phone. If you enter the wrong PUK code 15 times, the SIM chip is permanently locked. Once this happens, the only option is to get a new SIM chip. Keep these codes in a safe place, as your SIM chip is worthless without them. On a few occasions, I have needed the PUK, because I kept entering the PIN for another SIM chip.

For smartphones, you need to activate the data service by sending a text message for the plan that you want to use. For example, to activate the daily plan on Kolbi, you need to send a text message to 6060, with the message being “dia”. This activates the service, but does not configure your phone. Only Kolbi provides Internet instructions, in Spanish, for configuring a small set of phones. For those who don’t know Spanish, including me, working out the settings was not too difficult. Since every phone is different, there is no generic instructions. However, the magic value for the Access Provider Name (APN) is kolbi3g, and not icecelular. You can also have the store configure the phone for you, but I always like to get the instructions, just in case.