Setting up Internet in Nuevo Arenal

[CAROLYN MATHAS]

It’s official, I’m moving to Costa Rica. I have house, will be moving in a couple of months and traveling back and forth in the interim. I work remotely so I’m a bit stressed on what the procedure is regarding setting up Internet at my house. Where do I start? How do I find out if high speed connections exist? How long will it take me to set up service? How can I make it seamless–so that U.S. contacts haven’t a clue where I’m at? Any help you can give me will be really appreciated! Oh, and I don’t YET speak Spanish…

[JASON HOLLAND- COUNTRY EXPERT]

Hi Carolyn,

High speed Internet is available throughout the country so you shouldn’t have a problem. If you’re renting, your property manager or landlord should already have a connection in place. If not, there are several providers that should have offices nearby. As in the U.S. often they bundle cable TV and Internet if you’d like.

Racsa – http://www.racsa.co.cr

Tigo – http://www.tigo.cr

CableTica – http://www.cabletica.com

To make the transition seamless just go in the office when you get there as soon as possible or, if possible, have the caretaker of the property set it up before you move in. There are Internet cafes and wireless in every town, so if there are some delays with set up you have a place to go with your laptop.

As far as making it seamless, I can tell you from experience that people you correspond with online won’t know you moved unless you tell them. 🙂

[THOMAS MERGENS]

Jason, I have done a little bit of research on the topic as well and it’s always a bit confusing as to what type of service you need to operate something like Vonage or Voice over Internet in Costa Rica.  Something high-speed enough to run a small business, for instance.  The property I have purchased is up in the hills in Platanillo in the Southern Zone and though it has electricity I don’t believe it will be serve by phone or Internet anytime soon.

 

What type of service do you use and how have you found the reliability, especially in the green season?

 

Thanks for your help!

[JASON HOLLAND- COUNTRY EXPERT]

Hi Thomas,

I have lived in two pretty developed areas, so I’ve had reliable high-speed Internet. There have been outages but not frequent or long-lasting.

As far as my service quality, I can use Skype video conferencing no problem. It does take some time to download large videos though. I have one of the slower high speed connections available. But you can pay extra for higher speed connections.

I also have a MagicJack phone with a U.S. phone number that works just fine. Netflix as well runs perfectly through my son’s Wii game system.

As far as your place in the Southern Zone, you might not have phone but cell service should work. The cell network is more widespread than landlines believe it or not.

There are some options as far as Internet. I know some people in remote areas use satellite. I have a ‘mifi’ that runs off the cell phone data network that plugs into my laptop as a back up. Those are available from Movistar and some of the other cell phone providers I believe. That could be an option although transferring large files would eat up a lot of data, of course.

 

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