Costa Rica Calling Cards

Two leading calling card companies to choose from:
1) Cloncom top phonecards consolidator offers low cost calling to Costa Rica from major countries.

2) 1stUSA: US calling card company. Click 1stUSA for details

Map of Costa Rica
Calling cards: Nobelcom, 1st4phonecards
Dial Around: Enjoy Prepaid,
Long distance: PNG

This is what you need to know when you buy calling cards:

Connection Fee
Connection fee or first minute surcharge is charged when a call is connected. The charge varies between different service providers. If you make few long duration calls this charge is usually insignificant, but if you make frequent short duration calls you should look for a card with low or no connection fee.

Maintenance Fee
The maintenance fee is charged on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis, after the first use. If you intend to buy a card and use it in short time this charge is not significant, but if you intend to make few calls and keep your card for a long time you should choose a low maintenance fee card or no-maintenance fee card.

Minutes Rounding
Minutes rounding is the basic unit to record the length of the phone call. This varies between service providers and products. Cards may come with 1 second, 30 second or even 3 or 6 minute rounding. You should keep attention to phone card minutes rounding so you buy a card that fits you calling patterns.

Costa Rica Telecommunication*

Telephones - main lines in use:	450,000 (1998) note: 584,000 installed in 1997, but only about 450,000 were in use in 1998
Telephones - mobile cellular:	143,000 (2000)
Telephone system:	general assessment: very good domestic telephone service domestic: point-to-point and point-to-multi-point microwave, fiber-optic, and coaxial cable link rural areas; Internet service is available international: connected to Central American Microwave System; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); two submarine cables (1999)
Radio broadcast stations:	AM 50, FM 43, shortwave 19 (1998)
Television broadcast stations:	6 (plus 11 repeaters) (1997)
Internet country code:	.cr
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):	3 (of which only one is legal) (2000)
Internet users:	384,000 (2002)

*Costa Rica telecommunications data is from CIA World Factbook.

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