Home Phones

Home Phone Service: The phone company is owned by the government and it requires that you be a citizen or have a residency permit to have a phone line in your name. Once you apply for a line, you will have to wait several months before it actually gets installed, mostly due to high demand. Usually rental properties come with a phone line in the owner’s name, which means you won’t have your name in the phone book, but also that you will have immediate phone service without the wait and hassle of a new phone line. 

Installation service costs ¢16,500 ($33.33) and requires a deposit of ¢9000 ($18.18), plus tax, ¢2145 ($4.33), totaling ¢27,645 ($55.85). Telephone lines have a basic monthly fee of ¢1810 ($3.65) plus a small 911 fee and a 13% tax on the entire bill.  Out going local calls are charged in addition to the basic monthly fee or $.0129 per impulse after the first 150 impulses.* 

Long distance (international) service is an additional service that must be requested by the owner of the line. The rate is $.27 per minute to call the US, regardless of the time of day that call is made.  Only calls to Central America and Belize have different calling rates based on time of day.

*An impulse consists of 60 seconds of a call you make to someone within Costa Rica. There is a reduced rate (impulses are recorded every 120 seconds)  for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays and after 7 p.m. on weekdays.

Important Phone Numbers: 

Fire: 118

Red Cross: 128

Auto Accidents: 800 800 8000

Emergency: 911

Transit Police: 117

International Operator: 116

Directory Assistance: 113

Collect Calls: 175

AT&T USA Direct: 0-800-0-114-114

ICE Services: 115 

Tourism Information 192 

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