Costa Rica phone numbers to include 8th digit.

This year, Easter Week, or Semana Santa, is focusing on a rather non spiritual matter. An eighth digit will be added to all current telephone numbers starting on Thursday after midnight to make room for many more future telephone lines. It has been recommended to switch off cellular phones and to reboot them immediately once the switch has been made.

Funnily enough this coincides with the start of the famous Ley Seca, when supermarkets and liquor stores stop selling alcoholic drinks, and restaurants and bars stop serving them as well. Remember to stock up if you want to have a nice bottle of red with your Easter meal, or enjoy a cold a beer on the beach!

Many neighboring countries already went through the switch some years back and it is about time the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) got its act together! But did it really? Many ICE clients have expressed their doubts and fears. It has been learned that the staff at ICE will have the week off as per usual so there will not be extra help should any problem arise once the switch is made.

To prepare for these changes, ICE has made improvements to their central computer systems, totaling about $8 million, or ¢4.000 million. In addition, they distributed a new phone book this month that reflects the additional digit. Now the country just needs to sit tight and adjust to our new phone numbers.

There is still some fear that the change will lead to some confusion in the company as the main computers will suddenly be expected to recognize 8 digits instead of 7. All of the accounts have been frozen this week, but who is to know whether all these thousands of simultaneous switches and the addition of digits will go smoothly? Will Costa Rica find itself without any means of communication during the Easter holiday?

As long as everything is sorted out, land lines will have the number 2 added in front of their current number and cell numbers will have the additional prefix 8 added in front of the present number. In other words, if your home phone was 333-4455, it will become 2333-4455. If your cell phone was 855-0000, it will become 8855-0000. On ICE’s website, they have clarified that all 3-digit numbers, like the Emergency number 911 and Information’s 113, will stay the same. Similarly, all 800 and 900 numbers will not change. And for those of you who call out of country, the process also remains the same, so just follow you’re previous method, and you shouldn’t have a problem.

For the convenience of its customers, ICE has created a bilingual explanatory website. It is also possible to get additional information by dialing 115, starting from today at 5pm. ICE had previously added a 7th digit in 1994. It is expected that the addition of this 8th digit will be able to support the ever ending growing traffic for the next 30 years.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on March 19th, 2008