Comments on: Costa Rica 3g USB Tethering of My iPhone through ICE Internet Access No WiFi

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:21:57 +0000

Hey Travis, thanks for this post,

I am a pro poker player currently living in Tamarindo. I need to ensure the internet doesn’t go out by having 2 internet lines, one being the local cable service and I was hoping the other would be the cellular via my iphone through ICE. Unfortunately I have broadband 02.10.04 which seems to be impossible to unlock via my research. Also how can someone that is only on a tourism stay in Costa Rica get a data plan? Do they sell these via your sim card? I asked about a USB plugin device and the answer is you must be a resident to obtain such a thing.

Any help is much appreciated!

By: NIO

NIO — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:13:52 +0000

I recommend MyWi on an iPhone, you’ll need a 3G chip, too… you can get a Kolbi 3G… I recommend buying a dataCard, and using it for both surfing the net, (the Datacard seems to work better than the 3G through a phone) plus it runs your iPhone really hot. I also recommend avoiding giving a representative of ICE your phone, they like doing proprietary programming on it. They have a new law effective in September 2010 that says they only officially support iPhone 3GS and not 3G, but if you just buy a prepaid card it will work but you have to pay data as you use it, not unlimited, hence I recommend getting a Datacard and hooking up an unlimited chip and switching out. You might need a cedula or permanent residency to get that line though… some things don’t change!

By: NIO

NIO — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:08:53 +0000

Sorry for the slow reply… yes, Costa Rica can be a piece of work sometimes, but somehow after about a year I have gotten used to it. L.A. took me about four years to become accustomed to in the states. Go figure!

By: NIO

NIO — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:06:52 +0000

Hi, Well, you will most likely need to cancel your AT&T account but don’t worry about it until then. I would definitely Jailbreak and most importantly “unlock” your account. I did this post in April of 2010 and things are a lot easier now. My original difficulty with my phone was that it didn’t have WiFi and therefore didn’t unlock. In order to use your iPhones here you will definitely need an unlock (distinct from jailbreaking, jailbreaking is easy, unlocking is sometimes harder). In SF you should be able to hire someone to do it for $25.

Now they have Kolbi Prepaid plans which are pretty cool. I am using it on my iPhone and then bought a Datacard for wireless unlimited 3G access and it works really good. It’s not advertised, but I have been able to pop that card in my iPhone which is nice since nobody calls me locally much here, and I can surf the net unlimited…

Stay in touch! Travis

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:18:49 +0000

Hello,

Found your site via a google search for iPhone usage in Costa Rica. My wife and I are moving to San Francisco de San Isidrio in February and we both have iPhones (currently living in CA). We will be living in CR for at least two years, but I am now worried about our ability to use our phones. I, too, use Macs and I am fairly used to the jb world, but our phones aren’t currently jb’n. So, will ICE work with only Jb phones? Should we discontinue our AT&T account? That would be a lot of $ for early termination. Also, I’m curious as to your musical endeavors. I play keys and some guitar, drums, etc and would love to meet up with some musical minds once we get there. We’ve never been to CR and are just jumping in headfirst. So even if you are hours away, it would be cool to have anyone with some semblance of music, American life, etc once we get down there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I think we are excited and a bit scared at the same time. Thanks for any possible connection.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:49:40 +0000

I’m impressed after the hell I went through with a 3G Android for my girlfriend. Welcome to “paradise”.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 15:55:06 +0000

On my way to Costa Rica and wondered if you could pass along some help on getting my iPhone tethering working! Could you shoot me a message? Thanks!

By: Heath

Heath — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:57:42 +0000

So, you’re telling me that I can use my iPhone to connect my computer to the internet anywhere I have phone service in Costa Rica? I’m an absolute novice with this kind of stuff, but I was able to jailbreak and unlock my 2g on 3.1.3, with little difficulty through jailbreakme.com. Would you mind giving just a little more detail, as I will be in Costa Rica in about 2 months, in a relatively remote area, and will be staying for about a year. I’d be very happy if I could use my laptop!

By: Meg

Meg — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:38:41 +0000

Can you tell me how you did it?? I am looking to do the same….

By: watches

watches — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:26:20 +0000

Costa Rica 3g USB Tethering of My iPhone through ICE Internet Access No WiFi Travis Winn best post. I has been collection in my blog. 2010/03/03