Costa Rica By Telephone

are a common, relatively inexpensive means of calling abroad. Each one comes with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and a toll-free access number. You call the access number and then follow the directions for dialing your PIN. To purchase prepaid phone cards, check online for the best rates; www.callingcards.com is a good place to start. Online providers generally send your access number and PIN via email, with no actual “card” involved. You can also call home with prepaid phone cards purchased here.

Prepaid phone cards

Placing International Calls. To call Costa Rica from home or to call home from Costa Rica, dial:
1. The international dialing prefix. To call from Australia, dial 0011; Canada or the US, 011; Ireland, New Zealand, or the UK, 00.
2. The country code of the country you want to call. To call Australia, dial 61; Canada or the US, 1; Ireland, 353; New Zealand, 64; the UK, 44; Costa Rica, 506.
3. The local number.

Another option is to purchase a calling card, linked to a major national telecommunications service in your home country. Calls are billed collect or to your account. To call home with a calling card, contact the operator for your service provider in Costa Rica by dialing the appropriate toll-free access number (listed below in the third column).

Company	To Obtain A Card:	To Call Abroad:
AT&T (US)	☎+1-800-364-9292 or www.att.com	0800-011-4114
Canada Direct	☎+1-800-561-8868 or www.infocanadadirect.com	0800-015-1161
MCI (US)	☎+1-800-777-5000 or www.minutepass.com	0800-012-2222
Telecom New Zealand Direct	www.telecom.co.nz	0800 22 55 98

Collect calls through international operators can be expensive, but may be necessary in an emergency. You can call collect without possessing a company’s calling card just by calling its access number and following instructions.

Calling Within Costa Rica

The simplest way to call within the country is to use a coin-operated phone. Prepaid phone cards (available at newspaper kiosks and tobacco stores, or supermarkets), usually save time and money in the long run. Phone rates typically tend to be highest in the morning, lower in the evening, and lowest on Sunday and late at night. The numbers in Costa Rica have recently changed from seven digits to eight. All land-line phones have added a “2” to the beginning of the number, and all cell phones have added an “8.”

Cellular Phones

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is the sole provider of cell phone service in Costa Rica. Your cell phone will probably not work unless you arrange it with ICE and your home carrier before leaving. Cell phones are popular in Costa Rica, and coverage is becoming more widespread.

The international standard for cell phones is Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). To make and receive calls in Costa Rica, you will need a GSM-compatible phone and a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, a country-specific, thumbnail-sized chip that gives you a local phone number and plugs you into the local network. Many SIM cards are prepaid, and incoming calls are frequently free. You can buy additional cards or vouchers (usually available at convenience stores) to “top up” your phone. For more information on GSM phones, check out www.telestial.com, www.orange.co.uk, www.roadpost.com, or www.planetomni.com. Companies like Cellular Abroad (www.cellularabroad.com) rent cell phones that work in a variety of destinations around the world.

Gsm Phones. Just having a GSM phone doesn’t mean you’re necessarily good to go when you travel abroad. The majority of GSM phones sold in the United States operate on a different frequency (1900) than international phones (900/1800) and will not work abroad. Tri-band phones work on all three frequencies (900/1800/1900) and will operate through most of the world. Additionally, some GSM phones are SIM-locked and will only accept SIM cards from a single carrier. You’ll need a SIM-unlocked phone to use a SIM card from a local carrier when you travel.

Time Differences

Costa Rica is six hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and does not observe Daylight Saving Time. Note that between early April and late October, Costa Rica is one hour further behind the other countries in the chart below.

4am	5am	6am	7am	8am	Noon	10pm
Vancouver Seattle San Francisco Los Angeles	Denver	Chicago Costa Rica	New York Toronto	New Brunswick	London	Sydney* Canberra* Melbourne*

4am

5am

6am

7am

8am

Noon

10pm

Vancouver

Seattle

San Francisco

Los Angeles

Denver

Chicago

Costa Rica

New York

Toronto

New

Brunswick

London

Sydney*

Canberra*

Melbourne*

*Note that Australia observes Daylight Saving Time from October to March, the opposite of the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, it is 14hr. ahead of Costa Rica from March to October and 16hr. ahead from October to March.