Cold as ICE

That isn't ice as in frozen water - it is ICE (ee-say) as in the Costa Rican state-owned electrical and telecommunications monopoly.

They are the ones who provide electricity, phone, cell, cable to most of the country.  Needless to say, service isn't their strong suit.

Things like electricity are pretty simple.  They have that down pat - nothing fancy of complicated really.  But the rest is a different story.

In San Jose, again things are relatively straight forward - land lines, cable internet, 4G/LTE cell service and rocket sticks.  In the OSA it is a bit of a different story.

Land lines exist in the village, but don't extend beyond properties on the main road - those of us in the "Phases" or the more rural Tico homes have no chance of that.

Cell coverage has improved in the past 5 years - used to be there was a single spot on the highway where you were guaranteed service - now the whole area has some coverage (only 3G) but you often need to be strategic about how you maximize reception - one of our friends only gets reception on the roof top terrace (so don't call us, we'll call you), while our best reception is at the far end of the pool (great except when it is raining).  Most of this depends on whether you can see the cell tower next to El Castillo - which we cannot due to the ridge on the other side of the road.  Our Costa Rican cell works fine, but our North American phones are useless, even thought they work fine out by the highway.

Internet is the latest challenge.  For the past several years, satellite based service has been reliable but expensive - $69/month for 512k service - - think dial-up!  1M for $130.  Faster is available, but anything resembling cable speeds is over $300/month.  In May, Lisle bought a rocket stick, and a chip for his old iPhone4.  Both offered pay as you go voice/data service with an option of unlimited data for $20/month and speeds of 1M.  Seemed reliable although speed varied greatly depending on the number of users (forget doing anything on Sunday when everyone is at home!).

All seemed well until August 1, when with little fanfare ICE changed its plans.  No grandfathering like in Toronto, and very little clarity on what changed, how it works or what it costs - even by the ICE staff.  So after loading the stick on August 1 as per usual, on August 4 it just stopped working. Monday off to ICE in Cortes (the main regional office).  The verdict - there is no money on the account - explanations that it was done as instructed were of little use - another $20, message sent all good.  2 days later, no service - back to ICE, this time the satellite kiosk in the credit union in Uvita - no money on the account - huh??  So, no unlimited data plan on pay as you go anymore - $20 gets you 1.5G of data.  Unlimited service is now only available post paid for $24/month - new chip, new number, have to pay each month, but a small price overall - we'll see how this goes.

BTW, there is a new cell tower going up at the highway - we can see it directly from the living room - ICE 4G/LTE, supposed to be operational next month - guess we will have this advanture all over again next time we are down!