This issue has probably been addressed somewhere, but will my cell phone work in CR? I'll be in MA/ Arenal areas. Mine is suppose to work on frequencies or whatever those bands are called. Also will our phone cards from here work or should we just plan on buying there? How easy are they to use REALLY?
Thanks

The AT&T phone card works from a regular phone, but not from payphones anymore. We just pick up a 199 card when we get there. The 3000 colones card costs about $6 and will give you about 18 minutes. You can buy more time, such as the $20 card--about an hour of time. They work everywhere. Very easy to use. Cell phone usage (your own) can be VERY expensive. I've had one call cost close to $100--talked for about 30-40 minutes.

Shillmac, thanks for the info. I don't know anyone that I'm willing to pay $100 to talk to on my vacation! I guess I'll bring it for use in airports, etc.

Check w/ your cell carrier. We have Cingular. It had to be set up for international but we had good signal most everywhere. MA probably the least. I could never figure out why all these cars were pulled off on the shoulder of the road on the mountain top. After a few passes I realized everyone was on their cells. Must have been the "hot" spot ~smile. We go to CR a few times a year so we added a CR plan to our Cingular plan. I think its like $3 bucks a month but that gives you in country calls for free (great for making reservations, etc) and I think international is $2.09 a minute. Good luck! Have fun!

I have Cingular with international service for 6$ a month. The problem was being near a tower to get service.

Yes, we saw people standing in odd places b/c that's where the signal was.

We broke down between Nicoya and Nosara, 1/2 from nowhere, and had no service. Sometimes it said "Emergency Only". We went from Avellanas to Nosara and had service near Nicoya and some spots in Nosara.

Calls were around 2$ a minute. The credit card calls from the hotel pay phone in Avellanas though came through about 40$ each, but were longer of course.

Yes you are right. We had service in Samara & Nosara but not necessarily in between (when we got a flat). Not that we needed help, you know the ticos, while we were changing the tire we had a million people stop and ask if we needed "ayuda". When we are in CR our Cingular roams to (is it I.C.E.?) so I assume that is the best you will get with any carrier local or domestic. The car rental place always offers to rent a cell phone which may be an option too.