Costa Rica - Communications

Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational Issues

Costa Rica is located Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Nicaragua and Panama. The climate is tropical and subtropical; dry season (December to April); rainy season (May to November); cooler in highlands. The terrain is coastal plains separated by rugged mountains including over 100 volcanic cones, of which several are major volcanoes.

Telephones

Telephones - main lines in use : 1.437 million (2007)
Telephones - mobile cellular : 1.503 million (2007)

Telephone system

This entry includes a brief general assessment of the system with details on the domestic and international components. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry
Telephone system - general assessment : good domestic telephone service in terms of breadth of coverage; restricted cellular telephone service; state-run monopoly provider is struggling with the demand for new lines, resulting in long waiting times
Telephone system - domestic : point-to-point and point-to-multi-point microwave, fiber-optic, and coaxial cable link rural areas; Internet service is available
Telephone system - international : country code - 506; landing point for the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS-1) fiber-optic telecommunications submarine cable and the MAYA-1 submarine cable that provide links to South and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and the US; connected to Central American Microwave System; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2007)

Radio broadcast stations

This entry includes the total number of AM, FM, and shortwave broadcast stations.
Radio broadcast stations : AM 65, FM 51, shortwave 19 (2002)

Radios

Radios : 980,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations

Television broadcast stations : 20 (plus 43 repeaters) (2002)

Televisions

Televisions : 525,000 (1997)

Internet country code

This entry includes the two-letter codes maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the ISO 3166 Alpha-2 list and used by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to establish country-coded top-level domains (ccTLDs).
Internet country code : .cr

Internet hosts

This entry lists the number of Internet hosts available within a country. An Internet host is a computer connected directly to the Internet; normally an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) computer is a host. Internet users may use either a hard-wired terminal, at an institution with a mainframe computer connected directly to the Internet, or may connect remotely by way of a modem via telephone line, cable, or satellite to the Internet Service Provider's host computer. The number of hosts is one indicator of the extent of Internet connectivity.
Internet hosts : 16,440 (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) : 3 (of which only one is legal) (2000)

Internet users

This entry gives the number of users within a country that access the Internet. Statistics vary from country to country and may include users who access the Internet at least several times a week to those who access it only once within a period of several months.
Internet users : 1.5 million (2007)

More Information about the country

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