The Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) of  Costa Rica is the government agency in charge of issuing technical approvals for new devices entering the national wireless spectrum. Approved devices are known as celulares homologados in Spanish, and the highly anticipated iPhone 6 and the extra-large iPhone 6 Plus recently received such approvals.

Not all smartphones are guaranteed to work in Costa Rica. The SUTEL technical approval process takes a look at various factors that may affect the performance of a wireless device. These factors include:

• Compatibility with national frequencies
• Availability of parts and authorized repair centers
• Quality standards
• Unencumbered access to emergency dispatch operators such as 911
• Unique IMEI numbers in case of theft
• Optimal firmware and operating system versions

In some cases, manufacturers must make a few modifications to new devices in order to introduce them to the market in Costa Rica. Such was not the case with Apple and its recent iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which have already been purchased by anxious Tico shoppers who could not wait for the SUTEL technical approval or the official arrival of these two devices, which are expected to be offered by the Big 3 carriers (ICE, Claro and Movistar) just in time for the busy holiday shopping season.

To check if your wireless device has been technically approved in Costa Rica, key in the following sequence:

*#06#

the sequence above will reveal the IMEI codes, which needs to be entered on the site below:

https://frtrack.fruno.com/sutel

If your smartphone has been technically approved and has not been reported stolen, you should have no problems getting it to work optimally in Costa Rica. This does not mean that devices that have not been received technical approval will not work; in fact, sellers of “chiPhones” (cheap knockoff iPhone versions made in Asia) who hawk their wares on the sidewalks near the Mercado Borbon in San Jose often carry SIM chips from the Big 3 so that they can prove to customers that these counterfeit devices work in Costa Rica, albeit with a few limitations.