kaspaas
Expert Member
I've just returned from a work related trip to Zambia and the DRC.
I hope this would assist if you are going to Zambia or the DRC.
Info about internet connectivity is quite difficult to get as knowledge of the people I could speak to during the lightning visit was limited to something like "The internet comes through the cable" - quite similar to what one gets in South Africa outside the techie circles.
In Zambia the guesthouse had a broadband connection. The owner could tell me know more than that I had to plug the Cat5 ethernet cable at reception into my PC... But it was very nice to work with.
I could not find anything on 3G/GPRS in Zambia - though MTN is one of the networks. The people I met with are however expecting that MTN will soon have both 3G and GPRS running.
In the DRC it was something different. I was at a mining site, and the internet was on-and-off. I don't know where the feed came from, but when it did work, it was at almost broadband speeds.
Vodacom DRC does offer GPRS. I did even get to use it with my Vodacom SA SIM without changing any settings - and am waiting for the bill :-(
I did eventually get a prepaid a Vodacom DRC SIM (prices vary from US$3 to 8) and some airtime as well. (Not VC's fault, but me not getting to the shops).
A short summary of my experience:
- Voice roaming did work, but often the phone would ring and the actual voice connection failed. There was also a terrible delay of seconds - making it compulsory to count to 3 before responding.
- Calling from SA to my DRC number worked very well, and I experienced none of the roaming problems I had - except for the long delays.
- It was easy to get the DRC SIM going. However, it required to read the leaflet going with the SIM for activation instructions (Call 100 and follow the prompts - the instructions are available in French and English. For GPRS activation,it is required to call the helpline - press 2 for french tainted english... (5 free calls per month only - from the 6th they are charging for assistance). The helpline operator was extremely polite and efficient. The OTA instructions are SMS'ed in response to an SMS one has to send at a cost of US$0.20 each for the Internet, WAP en MMS settings.
- GPRS worked very reliably, but it was terribly slow. The fastest I could get it, was 100kB in about 20 minutes for mail. The cost is US$0.40 - quite reasonable. Despite the slow speeds, it served the function required - reliable e-mail connectivity. I used the Vodacom SMTP server with username/password authentication, and I doubt if Vodacom DRC has anything remotely like a relay SMTP server for GPRS users.
I hope this would assist if you are going to Zambia or the DRC.
Info about internet connectivity is quite difficult to get as knowledge of the people I could speak to during the lightning visit was limited to something like "The internet comes through the cable" - quite similar to what one gets in South Africa outside the techie circles.
In Zambia the guesthouse had a broadband connection. The owner could tell me know more than that I had to plug the Cat5 ethernet cable at reception into my PC... But it was very nice to work with.
I could not find anything on 3G/GPRS in Zambia - though MTN is one of the networks. The people I met with are however expecting that MTN will soon have both 3G and GPRS running.
In the DRC it was something different. I was at a mining site, and the internet was on-and-off. I don't know where the feed came from, but when it did work, it was at almost broadband speeds.
Vodacom DRC does offer GPRS. I did even get to use it with my Vodacom SA SIM without changing any settings - and am waiting for the bill :-(
I did eventually get a prepaid a Vodacom DRC SIM (prices vary from US$3 to 8) and some airtime as well. (Not VC's fault, but me not getting to the shops).
A short summary of my experience:
- Voice roaming did work, but often the phone would ring and the actual voice connection failed. There was also a terrible delay of seconds - making it compulsory to count to 3 before responding.
- Calling from SA to my DRC number worked very well, and I experienced none of the roaming problems I had - except for the long delays.
- It was easy to get the DRC SIM going. However, it required to read the leaflet going with the SIM for activation instructions (Call 100 and follow the prompts - the instructions are available in French and English. For GPRS activation,it is required to call the helpline - press 2 for french tainted english... (5 free calls per month only - from the 6th they are charging for assistance). The helpline operator was extremely polite and efficient. The OTA instructions are SMS'ed in response to an SMS one has to send at a cost of US$0.20 each for the Internet, WAP en MMS settings.
- GPRS worked very reliably, but it was terribly slow. The fastest I could get it, was 100kB in about 20 minutes for mail. The cost is US$0.40 - quite reasonable. Despite the slow speeds, it served the function required - reliable e-mail connectivity. I used the Vodacom SMTP server with username/password authentication, and I doubt if Vodacom DRC has anything remotely like a relay SMTP server for GPRS users.
