Zambia, Senegal, So. Africa, Zimbabwe Coverage

[snidely]

1. You can use your BB email functions in Senegal and So. Africa Altho Zambia makes BB service available to its post-paid customers (on Zain network), you can't use your own BB there. There are a couple other carriers, but their foot print is smaller.

2. Coverage thruout Zambia is very good - even in some fairly remote areas. (I don't know where the power comes from for some of these towers.). At one point flew for 250 miles at low altitude in a 6 seater plane. Had cell signal 80% of the time. Did no voice calls during trip on BB. Did use a Celtrek card for a few calls.
I was able to connect via UMA - but the internet in Zambia is not good. VQ was bad. One lodge had internet via satellite - and while I could connect well enuf to have my BB email function well - voice was bad. Besides, the proprietor paid a lot by the mb of data used. I am sure a voice call over data would have been expensive for him.

The Celtrek card (w. Belgian number) worked perfectly.

3. At Victoria Falls area (borders Zimbabwe) picked up couple of Zimbabwe towers. Just used SMSvia CelTrek - maybe one call.

4. Senegal has fast internet and everything worked as it should. UMA etc. We were only in the Dakar area.

5. In So. Africa, was only in airport. Used UMA a lot since we had a 4 hour layover.


Using an intl. card is a must in a 3rd world country like Zambia where T-Mobile U.S. charges $5/min to roam. With CelTrek it was 40 cents/min. as i recall. Using the Celtrek card was cheaper than buying a local prepaid.


...mike