Calling Costa Rica

Submitted by fyl on 18 March, 2008 - 11:06.

Beginning 20 March 2008, Costa Rica will have eight-digit phone numbers replacing the current seven-digit system. The good news is that there is a simple formula to translate any Costa Rica number you have into something that will work after midnight on the 19th.

Any fixed number will just have a 2 added in front of it. Any cellular number will have an 8 added. The other clue is that cellular numbers all begin in 3, 8 or 9. Thus, 83, 88 and 89 will be the first two digits of the new cellular numbers.

Years ago (I don't know how long), Costa Rica went from six to seven-digit numbers. There are still lots of signs in Alajuela with six-digit numbers on them but everyone knows that you just needed to prepend them with a 4. For example, 43-22-33 became 443-2233. On Thursday it will be 2443-2233. Oh, and when I was a kid in Los Angeles, my phone number was PL 5149 but it became PL 8-5149. :-)

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Calling cards

Submitted by mjt on 20 March, 2008 - 09:40.

A similar move was orchestrated in Honduras in 2007. Like most things in Honduras, it was not handled all that well. The shift was not overnight, and took a week or more to actually work as expected. But, the worst part was that virtually no calling card (sold online or in stores in North America) was able to get through to Honduras, for nearly a month. The "systems" used my all the major card vendors did not recognize the added digit, and they claimed they were never notified of the change. Hopefully, CR does a better job. Wouldn't be that hard...