On Monday the state telecom, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), launched the very first 4GLTE mobile network in Costa Rica (and Central America), with internet speeds of up 10 MB.
For now technology is only available for data, with voice being added before the end of the year, as 4GLTE phones are available for purchase in Costa Rica.
Customers who want to take advantage of this new, faster internet will have to hand over ¢48.000 colones (US$96 monthly) for the 10 megs and transfer limit of 15GB – or ¢27.000 clones (US$55) for transfers up to 6GB – for 30 days. Customers can also purchase daily use for ¢3.000 colones (US$6) with a limit of 1GB and a connection of up to 6MB.
Important to note here, the speed is UP TO, that is you won’t be surfing at max all of the time, maybe just some of the time.
To connect, you need a 4G LTE Data Card kit that includes 5GB transfer, ¢500 colones of time, the USIM 4G LTE chip and the 4G LTE Huawei E3276s-500 datacard for ¢50.000 colones (US$100). For customers who already have a 4G LTE datacard of 4G LTE smartphone (only for data), they can purchase for ¢3.000 colones (US$6) the chip, that comes with 1GB of transfer and ¢3.000
colones of time.
For now the 4G service is limited to selected areas. Click here for the coverage map.