Info Post - Mobile & Internet

Big waves has made snorkeling a bust in the past few days - not that I have't still gone - so no decent pictures.  So, I thought I'd write the first of a series of informational posts.  These may help you plan your own trip to Costa Rica, or just understand some of the issues, benefits, nuances, of living here.

Free WiFi is fairly common in Costa Rica.  It's available just about anywhere, but not everywhere.  That is to say, you won't have problems finding free WiFi in just about any town.  But you won't likely find it where you're staying.  If it is included, don't expect reliable service or fast speeds.  I'm in this boat.  I can't get access from within my suite, but it's fine outside.  Luckily there's a VERY comfortable hammock on my porch :)  Unfortunately, it goes down about every two days (the internet, not the hammock).

When it's on, the connection speed is terrible.  The service is only 1 Mbps (ADSL), and I rarely get even close to that.  More like half that speed.  To the uneducated, this is fine for getting email and surfing the web.  That's it.  No streaming, no IP phone.  After much frustration I decided to look into a data plan for my mobile phone.  My phone will work in most countries, I just need to buy a simple chip (SIM card) to use on the local system.  Some countries have cheap pay-as-you-go plans, others are outrageous.  Turns out Costa Rica is quite reasonable.  For $6 you get a SIM card, $14 credit on your account, and 500 minutes of data.  The data and $8 of the credit expires in 15 days, and the original $6 paid expires in 30 days (I see that they have now changed to $4 for the SIM card and $4 bonus credit, everything else is the same).

Text messages are so cheap they're basically free.  Local calls aren't much more expensive.

Prices are in Canadian cents, not dollars or colones.

	Costa Rica	International
Text	0.33	8
Calls (per minute)	6.8	26

Data plans are cheap too.  Especially if you consider it's unlimited.  Most plans in Canada and the US have caps.  It's also reliable and top speed is consistent.  Prices in dollars.

	CAD	Speed
1 Day	0.60	512 kbps
1 Week	4.60	512 kbps
15 Days	9.00	1 Mbps
1 Month	18.00	1 Mbps

With this service and my phone tethered to my laptop (via cable or wireless hotspot), I'm able to use my laptop just about anywhere.  I can't stream most live TV, but my IP phone works fairly well, and so does Google video chatting.  Free calls back to Canada or the US  :)))  I was able to watch the Blackberry 10 launch live perfectly via the CBC website, but this is not the norm.  Downloading movies/tv is a breeze.  Just do it at night or when I'm away during the day.

So if you're every coming down here and worried about connecting back home, don't worry at all.  Bring your quad-band or GSM phone, and pick up a Kolbi SIM card.  They're available everywhere.