Cape Verdes (Cabo Verdes)

[timmfive]

The Cape Verdes are a group of 10 islands off the west coast of Africa.
Cape Verde - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is only one provider: "CVMovel"
CVMovel

Which for once makes it and easy decision!
I sorted out my PrePaid GSM in Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente, and also tested it on neighbouring island Santo Antao.
So can't say what the coverage is on other islands.

I thought I would share the information here.
In Mindelo, look for a palm tree that is actually not a palm tree but rather a disguised mobile phone tower! It is easy to spot. Or ask anyone how to get to the main CVMovel centre. Which is painted green and pink and is a big building, the north part of which seems to be a hospital!?.

Aaaaanyway, on entry there is a ticket machine with 4 or 5 queues. "B" is for mobile phones. But there is another queue for paying/purchasing. Don't worry... they'll guide you around. Budget around 1.5 hours to sort this out.

A SIM for my phone costed €0.50. I also purchased €7 credit. There are a few information pamphlets in the place, but none help explain anything. The agent had one behind the counter that had good info with what number to text to purchase data, etc.

Here are a few rates off the pamphlet
Text 2015 for 200MB of data, cost €4.40
Text 2020 for 500MB of data, cost €5.00 (what I went for)
Text 2030 for 2000MB of data, cost €9.90

Work flow is as follows: queue up in line "B", talk to agent, show unlocked phone (natch!), buy SIM for 50 cents, go back to queue D? to buy above credit and text above number to buy data package. Then an agent at the end of the queues will set up phone... not sure what she did, maybe the APN etc. Both agents dialled a few numbers and answered a few auto menus to activate SIM, etc.

Anyway, worked well. Few meg down, 0.5 Meg up on speedtest.

- - -
Also bought a SIM for unlocked USB dongle (standard Huawei E1550).
There was a bit of confusion as to whether dongle would work on their network. They took it upstairs and after 20 minutes of testing came down with smiles and thumbs up and were happy to report dongle works on their network.
Was given a different piece of paper outlining plans for data dongle.
€4.90 for 250MB or €8.90 for 3000MB. Went for the 3Gig.
In the Huawei "mobile partner" software used to connect i just set it to dynamic APN and it connected. Was happy about this. Speedtest shows 2Mbps down and 512kbps up. Steady though. Enough to support video chat, VOIP call, etc.

Good luck. Hope this helps any future visitors to Cape Verdes,

[inquisitor]

Thank you for your review. As a side note there is a second MNO on Cabo Verde: Tmais - Banda larga 3G, Telemovel, Internet, Noticias, entretenimento, Videos online, Atendimento