If you bought one of the new GSM lines in December and haven’t insured your phone, you are in luck.  INS has opened the time period from 30 days to 60 days from the date of purchase.  You may get the insurance from the place you purchased the phone, or from INS authorized offices.

The insurance costs 7.25% of the purchase price of the phone (7250 colones per 100,000 of value).  ICE estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 phones are stolen each month.

The company GPS Satélite S.A, in conjuction with ICE, is offering a new service for parents who want to track their children’s whereabouts or spouses who want to keep tabs on their partner. 

The device is the size of a small cell phone and incorporates a GSM chip that can store 4 numbers for use in case of an emergency.  The person with the device may talk to those at the stored numbers.  The person who contracts the service may locate the device using a web site and the GPS capabilities of the device.  Another feature is the ability to activate the device and listen to sounds produced in the environment around it.

"Used in the right way, it could be a valuable tool, even for the police. ", said Rosalía Gil, president of PANI.

For Rogelio Ramos, minister of Security, "this service is an interesanting security measure that modernizes technology in service of security "

"Everything is legal, it is a complementary service to our customers", explained Orlando Cascante, Director of Mobile Services for ICE. "Here nothing is hidden", he added.

The device costs 150,000 colones and the monthly fee is 10,000, plus the monthly cell phone bill for ICE’s GSM service.