Making phone calls in Nicaragua

To subscribe to telephone service, stop in any Claro office.  That is the only telephone company for landlines.

There are presently two mobile operators, Claro and Movistar.  There are kiosks that sell the chips at most malls and markets.  They have various plans that can be subscribed to, but most people just buy a prepaid chip for about $3 to $5.  The chips work in any unlocked GSM telephone that has 850mhz bands.  With the chip, all incoming telephone calls are free (this is because it works on "calling party pays").  The trick is that calls from a Movistar telephone to a Claro phone, or a Claro phone to a Movistar phone are quite expensive (about $.40/minute) and there's no real way to know which carrier you are calling.

All numbers that start with "2" are landline telephones ("fijo") and are relatively inexpensive to call.  Numbers that start with 5, 6, 7, or 8 are mobile numbers.

To call international from Nicaragua, dial 00+country code+number.  For example, to call the United States, you would dial 00-1-number.  To call the UK you would dial 00-44-number.

Calls from mobile telephones to international destinations other than the United States are extremely expensive.  It is recommended you go to an internet cafe which will charge you a discounted price to call international as they have voice over IP lines (Vonage) lines.

If you will be making and receiving many calls from home, it'd be best to obtain internet service and a VOIP line such as Vonage, Magic Jack, etc.