Pre paid roaming

[Captain Beer]

So I'm going to be in Zambia for a while. Last time I was there, I couldn't roam on pre-paid, but apparently that is no longer a problem.
Can anyone confirm the following for me:
If I roam on MTN Zambia, I can receive calls free of charge.
Data costs are 1c/KB
Pre-paid roaming is activated by default.
BlackBerry will work there (even if I have to pay the standard rate for data).

Thanks

 

[SecretCode]

Can anyone confirm the following for me:

If true this is different from the past. (Not Zambia, but Botswana, Kenya and Ghana.)

You need international roaming enabled as a service - they will happily do this as you're authorising them to charge you more! But it's not activated by default afaik. You have do this before leaving SA I think.
You may also need to enable data while roaming on your phone - it's off by default on my HTC for which I am very grateful.
Data costs of 1c/KB ie R10/MB sounds unlikely, unless things have changed. Expect R50 to R300 / MB. Hunt for the page on MTN that tells you the roaming data costs (it has moved since I last found it unf.). Stories abound of people receiving bills on contract for R10,000 or more - not sure how that maps out for prepaid.

By the far the best thing to do, always, is to buy a local SIM card and pop it in your phone (and tell your friends and contacts obviously), and buy a local prepaid data bundle. Most African countries have good prepaid data offerings nowadays, but roaming is still in the dark ages. I'm not a blackberry user so that might introduce complications (but should work fine).