Pre-paid Cell Service for Costa Rica.
ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electicidad or the Costa Rican Electricity Institute), the government institution currently with monopoly control over Costa Rica’s telecommunications, announced that today, 2,000 never-activated GSM lines will go back into the pool of available phone lines.
With waiting lists that go on for months, some Costa Ricans purchase a SIM card whenever they get the chance, even if they don’t intend to immediately use it. Though this is understandable, each un-activated GSM line is one that another Costa Rican would use, and so ICE has planned to cancel 2,000 never-activated cell phone lines.
Elberth Durán, spokesperson for ICE, says that all affected cellular line owners have until the end of today to activate their lines. Activation costs ¢12,500 (about $25), and must be done at an ICE office or authorized retailer. If you own a solicitud (application) between 81911314 and 82093105 and don’t activate it, your number will be resold to someone else.
In other Costa Rica cell phone news, earlier this month, La Aurtoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep, the Public Services Regulatory Authority) authorized ICE to sell pay-as-you-go SIM cards, which will function much like their North American counterparts. Such service is actually available in just about every other Latin American country except for Costa Rica at the moment.
For those on vacation to Costa Rica, those who don’t use their cell phone very much, or those who need a quick fix while waiting for a permanent line, this new payment plan will be ideal. Cards will be sold in values of ¢2,500 (approximately $5), ¢5,000 ($10), and ¢10,000 ($20). Though a new concept for cell phones in Costa Rica, these new cards will be very similar to the phone cards ticos use for public phones, which are not coin-operated.
ICE’s ¢2,500 card will buy you 62 minutes worth of talk time, averaging $0.08/minute, and will expire 30 days after its first use. The ¢5,000 card will purchase 135 minutes of cell phone service, and average of about $0.074/minutes, and will expire 45 days after the first call. Lastly, the ¢10,000 pre-paid card will afford uses 294 minutes of service, averaging $0.068 per minute of local calls, and will expire 60 days after activation.
However, like all phone service in Costa Rica, Aresep has established different rates depending on time of day: for the ¢5,000 card, daytime minutes will cost ¢37 (about $0.0753/minute) and nighttime minutes will run ¢30 (about $0.061). The higher your card value, the less you’ll pay: the ¢10,000 card has daytime minutes at ¢34 ($0.0692) and nighttime at ¢28 (¢0.057). Text messages will cost ¢1.7, or $0.0035.
There will surely be a few bumps in the road with ICE’s new prepaid wireless plans, but after the wrinkles get ironed out, it promises to be a welcome service to Costa Rica’s telecom services. With this additional service, as well as ICE’s plans to increase available home phone lines, ICE moves toward the future as a more-competitive company, a designation that will prove to be quite necessary in the assumed wake of CAFTA’s approval.
