On November 14^th, the Big 3 wireless service providers in Costa Rica officially began offering the long-awaited Apple iPhone 6 and the oversized iPhone 6 Plus to eager shoppers. As reported by The Costa Rica Star, the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Spanish acronym: SUTEL) recently issued technical approval of the new Apple smartphones and their operating systems, even though they were already available without calling plans through a few retailers.

Now that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are now available from Claro, Kolbi (ICE) and Movistar, users in Costa Rica have more than 100 purchase and calling plan combinations to choose from. To this effect, Movistar is only offering the new iPhones to be used on its 4G long term evolution (LTE) network -this is essentially a requirement to get the new devices from the Spanish wireless giant. Claro and Kolbi customers will be able to use their iPhone 6 smartphones on the 3G network.

At this time, Kolbi is the only Big 3 wireless carrier that offers the 64GB iPhone Plus. If you would like to make an outright purchase of an iPhone 6 from the Big 3 to use as a prepaid smartphone, your best bet would be Kolbi. The former telecommunications monopoly offers the 16GB version of the iPhone 6 for 420,000 colones (about $787). If you prefer the top-of-the-line 64GB iPhone 6 Plus, it will cost you about $1,031. Kolbi also offers the only “free” iPhone 6 option: The 16GB version can be obtained without an upfront payment by committing to a two-year contract that requires monthly payments of about $85 per month.

The abundance of calling plan and purchase combinations offered by the Big 3 can be overwhelming for some users. To this effect, The Costa Rica Star made the following comparison of mid-range monthly plans between the three carriers:

• Claro: 600 voice minutes, 3,000 text messages and 5 Mbps wireless broadband costs 34,400 colones per month (about $65) after an initial payment of 60,900 colones
• Kolbi: 800 voice minutes, 1,850 text messages and 5 Mbps wireless broadband costs 34,000 colones per month after an initial payment of 107,000 colones
• Movistar: 1,000 voice minutes, 1,000 text messages and 4G LTE data speed costs 37,000 colones per month after an initial payment of 56,000 colones