Costa Rica Offers International Roaming for Cell Phones

Good news for Costa Rica cell-phone users. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) has announced that international roaming is now available for all of its 900,000 Ericsson cell phone lines.

This is in addition to 400,000 users who already have  international roaming cell lines provided to ICE by Alcatel.

To activate the service, users must be current on their bills and go to any ICE telecommunications office. Along with standard documentation, subscribers must also make a minimum deposit of $150.

According to ICE, the deposit is a guarantee that users won't run up a large tab while abroad and then not pay it. Planning on using more minutes? You can make a larger deposit. Once a user's bill reaches $150 or the deposit amount, the service will be suspended.

Charges per minute and per text message will depend on the local network. Roaming will be available only in countries where ICE has a contract with local networks.

With this service upgrade, international roaming is now available to all subscribers with GSM lines, one of Costa Rica's two cellular systems.

TDMA, the other system, uses an older technology, has 850 MHz frequencies and is in the hands of about 425,000 users. GSM phones, a newer, yet less reliable system, have 1,800 MHz frequencies and are used by 1.26 million users nationwide, according to ICE.

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