After more than 20 formal complaints filed by mobile phone consumers in Costa Rica during 2014, the Superintendency of Communications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) has made a new ruling that will push service providers to continuously inform their customers about every single detail of their international roaming activity.

According to a recent article by Rebeca Madrigal of online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, the new rule directs mobile data and voice providers to come up with a method to inform their customers about the following charges:

• The type of service used
• The amount of time spent using the service, when applicable
• The cost of voice services
• The cost of data services
• The cost of Simple Message System (SMS) units

In addition to the above, service providers in Costa Rica are now expected to send a text message to their international roaming customers as soon as they enter another country’s wireless network. These text messages shall count as one free SMS unit, and should inform the customer about the current international roaming rates along with taxes levied on voice, data and text messaging services.

The SMS notification when entering a new international wireless network should also include two phone numbers that customers can call to request assistance; one of the numbers shall be local and the other can be international or toll-free.

Wireless carriers in Costa Rica must now carefully disclose their international roaming procedures and provide a way for consumers to opt out of this feature. Customers should also be informed about whether international roaming rates are being calculated based on colones or United States dollars. If a customer wants to establish a limit of how much they intend to spend on international roaming services, the provider should accommodate this request and notify the customer when he or she has already consumed 80 percent of the limit and how much they would have to pay for an extension.