Utilities:

Electricity, ICE (Instituto De Comunication y Electricidad) the government owned power utility, provides electrical power to the entire country. The costs are about 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Monthly costs for the average house runs about $20.00 to $30.00 per month. The exceptions to this are, if you just have to have air conditioning or you live in the mountains and need electric heaters to take the morning chill away. Cooking can be done with electric or gas ranges (propane, sorry no natural gas).
Gas (propane for cooking) can be purchased from your local supermarket in the small tanks or the larger 100 liter tanks can also be used. Your neighborhood gas supplier will deliver large or small tanks for a small charge. Average usage for cooking with a small tank is about one month, the big tank should last 8 months to a year. Gas is one of those items with a fixed price from the government. Expect to pay a deposit for every tank you have and also purchase the regulator, hose, fittings, etc. A good idea is to use a large tank and keep a small tank as a back-up. Knowing you never run out of gas on a normal work day. Every community has a local gas supplier who will be happy to set you up for gas to your range and/or dryer. They are good and their prices fair.

Water! Yet another government utility, "A&A" (Acueductos & Alcantarillados) (Water & Sewer). Unless you have a swimming pool, water should be about $5.00 per month. All homes on A&A have meters. Many rural properties also have well water along with city water. Drinking well water from a shallow untreated well is not a good idea. Water costs are $0.25 per cubic meter.

Telephones & Internet: You guessed it, another government utility, there is hope however. Plans call to "privatize" the phone and electric monopolies. Don't hold your breath! Telephone - be wary of a house or land that does not have a phone line installed. Getting a new phone line installed, depending on where you're located, can take years. If you must have a phone, be sure to buy real estate with an existing phone line or assure yourself that you can have a line installed in your lifetime. Telephone costs are reasonable. A typical monthly phone bill, excluding of course, overseas calls, runs about $20.00 per month. Long distance calls from Costa Rica are very costly (typically a $1.00 a minute to the US or Canada). The good news is that there are several service companies here that can connect you to the North for less, and even free via the Internet. Cellular phones cost the same as home phones as long as you use no more than 60 minutes a month of "air time". The big difference here is that you pay only for your outgoing calls. The caller pays for your inbound calls. Cell phones are readily available, but costly. The cellular network is good throughout most of the country, and is continually expanding. Internet! There are two options on Internet connections, again depending on where you live. Now most cable companies offer cable Internet services. You must take cable TV to have their Internet. ASDL (RSDI here) is available in some areas, but not sure on cost. Internet connection provided, yeah, you guessed it, by RACSA ( the phone people from ICE) is based on a usage cost. $10.00 per month for 10 hours, $25.00 per month for 25 hours. $35.00 per month for 90 hours. Excess hour charge on the 25 hour plan is $0.90 per hour. A new service has been recently added, $15.00 per month unlimited access, but with some restrictions; only available to residence phone lines in your name, connection is only allowed on that phone line, no roaming or access from outside Costa Rica. That's all there is folks! The access charges to the Internet DO NOT include phone charges The second option is TV cable Internet. Two types are available now, more in the future. Again, depending on where you live, you can obtain a "2-Way" cable modem or "1-Way" cable modem. Ok, without becoming "nerdy", the 2-way allows you to be on the Internet 24 hours a day and connect to and receive from the Internet via your TV cable. No more one-way service available The 1-way allows you to receive the internet via TV cable, but you need a phone line to send. (Only in my opinion, a bit of a waste.) The costs, at this writing, are for a 2-way $80.00 per month plus $200.00 for the "box" and another $100.00 for installation. The 1-way is somewhat less. RACSA and the cable TV folks are constantly expanding so don't take my word, check them out. (www.racsa.co.cr) (www.amnet.co.cr).

Cable TV! I hate to sound redundant, sorry, depending on where you live, cable TV is available. The bigger the city the better the cable service. CNN, HBO, etc. are on the cable. Costs about $20.00 per month. There are premium services available also, more movies, Playboy, etc. Check it out at www.amnet.co.cr. Pay them bills! All utility bills can be paid in several ways. Most major supermarkets, most banks, or your handy credit card. No fancy payment envelopes to mail, besides your utility would probably be disconnected before the mail made it. Forget about the horror stories you've heard, it's not a big deal to pay your bills! Most all bills are out the 15th of each month and usually due in 10 days. Now all utility bills and business bills can be paid on-line in minutes. On-line baking is now up and running, pay mortgages, transfer funds between accounts.