I was in Costa Rica from Feb 23 to Mar 1, 2014. I got voice, but no data.
I have the "Simple Choice unlimited Talk + Text" plan.
I was in the areas of San Jose, La Fortuna, and Playa Samara. There were usually 3 mobile operators listed on my phone:
- "I.C.E."
- "Movistar",
- one other that I can't remember.
I was able to register only on the "Movistar" network.
My phone was an unlocked GSM Motorola MotoX phone whose spec is:
- 2G/2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE bands: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- 3G UMTS bands: 850/900/ AWS/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps (B5/B8/B4/B2/B1)
- 4G LTE bands(GSM Unlocked model only): 700/AWS/1900MHz (B17/B4/B2)
I had enabled both of the following features under "Mobile network settings":
- "Data enabled"
- "Data roaming"
Movistar is listed as supporting (List of mobile network operators of the Americas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):
- GSM-1800 (GPRS, EDGE)
- 850/2100 MHz UMTS, HSDPA
If I read that right, it should have been able to connect on 2G EDGE on the 1800MHz band. (In case anyone is wondering, I have taken this phone to other countries and have observed the 2G data roaming to work.)
I invite other people to add their roaming experiences in Costa Rica to this thread. If you were able to get 2G data, let us know what kind of phone you were using.