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Question of the Day: Which is the most hair-raising South African mountain pass you've driven?
RICA & Kindle
- Thread starter BigAl-sa
- Start date
Other Pineapple Smurf
Honorary Master
Interesting question, would like some comments from VC, MTN & CC reps on this. I do understand that Kindle is using Vodacom in South Africa (please correct me)
Other Pineapple Smurf
Honorary Master
Well according RICA:
Why must you register?
* RICA is a legal requirement from Government and all customers with cell phone numbers on cellular networks in SA must comply with the law.
So even if your device had an embedded SIM, if it has an MSISDN linked to it then it needs to be RICA'd but in the context of the Kindle it would not have an MSISDN associated to so RICA might not be required. So technically should this apply to Neotel as well?
AFAIK you can use any network that has partnered with amazon or something like that (I also stand to be corrected)
Terencek
Expert Member
Yes the Kindle uses the Vodacom network, and in theory you have complete data access (with a few restrictions like no streaming audio or video, no actual downloads). You can even e-mail if you use a Web interface. But as it is not using an actual assigned cellular number, the assumption would be it doesn't require RICA. The implications for travellers with Kindles would be horrendous....
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
How exactly are you going to RICA it? What cell number are you going to give the guy to RICA it?
Customer: "I want to RICA my kindle device"
Cell shop owner: "OK, what is the Cellular Number?"
Customer: "It doesn't have one."
Cell shop owner: "GTFO and stop wasting my time!"
Customer: "I want to RICA my kindle device"
Cell shop owner: "OK, what is the Cellular Number?"
Customer: "It doesn't have one."
Cell shop owner: "GTFO and stop wasting my time!"
ToxicBunny
Oi! Leave me out of this...
You have it all wrong..... it would go more like this.
Customer: "I want to RICA my kindle device"
Cell shop owner: "Huh? What is that?"
Customer: *Spends next 30 minutes trying to explain before giving up and leaving in a huff*
Just for everyone's info, Kindle can use any SA network (or at least you could the last time I wanted to change to MTN). Go into [-]any[/-] the settings menu and type 311 (bit tricky on K3 
). You will then get a list of selectable SPs. When I got my Kindle last year, it defaulted to CellC which was pretty useless where I live.
@Kayvee: hope you're right!
). You will then get a list of selectable SPs. When I got my Kindle last year, it defaulted to CellC which was pretty useless where I live.@Kayvee: hope you're right!
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I've just checked, all service providers are still available and selectable.
Further to everything else, typing 611 from the settings menu gives you just about every detail of the sim card except the phone number (IMEI, ICCID and IMSI). You can even get the IP address. With that info, someone should be able to pin down the required data for the SIM (whether any of the providers have anyone capable of doing it is another matter).
Further to everything else, typing 611 from the settings menu gives you just about every detail of the sim card except the phone number (IMEI, ICCID and IMSI). You can even get the IP address. With that info, someone should be able to pin down the required data for the SIM (whether any of the providers have anyone capable of doing it is another matter).
Terencek
Expert Member
I'm not so sure about the post saying that you can use any service provider with the Kindle. Outside AT&T in the USA, Amazon only have the 'free interent for life' deal with Vodafone partners (thus Vodacom in SA) -- so if a Kindle manages to access MTN in SA then something is definitely wrong with their system!
if you're 'not so sure', why don't you try it?