Hello
Hello Steve, May 2007 Togo
I am on a per KB plan, however until June, it is free
to use, the price is very confusing and I sat in the Togocel.tg office three
times for one hour trying to learn about the GPRS, finally a man came down, and
they says, it is Free until June.
JUST Togo is involved and I cannot find any
relationship between many African countries.
The pivotal question is, how much to use some USA
service in Benin or Cameroon? It is available?
I originally planned on purchasing Satellite in
the USA and paying about 350 US per month, then I just arrange one connection
and I am done. Then the USA Satellite company wanted me to buy even before I
looked at the unit, then they would bring to Chicago. I have extremely severe
size problems and weight, I cannot just order something that cost up to 5000 US
per year to use, then say, ooops, too heavy, or too big.
I gambled, I think the world is adding on GPRS
so fast, that i can fly between African countries, (300 Dollars) and jump from
Prepaid GPRS Sim Card with GPRS access to GPRS access. This is my plan, find a
country with similar GPRS access as Togo, then go there next, whether by
Airplane or by Land.
The live for two months then hop to the next, I
was on the Cingular site and asked many questions, in the end, I never felt I
had clear answers. I paid to sign up for a long distance dial-up to
Earthlink.net only to discover it would not work, and had to cancel. I wrote a
lady at About.com and she wrote back, on and on and one, annoyingly
so.
What I have learned, if I go to a country that
smell like they may be offering it, one of the companies is up to speed on
offering, but there is no way to discover until I enter the country and go to
the main office and sit.
I am 90 percent sure Ghana is easy here,
Nigeria is easy, and about 80 percent sure on Cameroon, the problem is then
price, and this Bluetooth versus a PCMIA card thing, some require I buy a card
of some type, others want post-paid contracts.
I guess what I should do is find two countries
close, then if one is a problem, go to the next and try.
I do know that Blackberry is making some great
deals, and special deal, I have just not found Africa high on the list, I think
I could travel about anywhere in Asia easy now. I have decided, I will only go
to GPRS internet or Edge, something using cell towers
countries.
I was reading that Satellites are going to give
Unlimited Internet in maybe the Caribbean on BGAN with a monthly
fee.
I will try to read these links, do they work in
Camarron, Gabon, Congo?
Thanks
Andy in Togo, Africa May of
2007
YOU WROTE
Andy, are you using a fixed price unlimited GPRS data plan or a per-KB
plan? Is it multi-country or just in Togo?
By the time you get back there may be a solution that helps transcend
borders. In July Sprint is coming out with a Blackberry 8830 that uses
EVDO in the US and GSM in other countries. It is unlocked so you can
purchase local sim cards for it when traveling to make calls far cheaper than
using Sprints global rates. However, you will get unlimited data and can
plug your computer into it to access the net.
Blackberry released the 8800 series in February. The 8830 is the first
one that uses Qualcom's EVDO technology, used by Sprint, Verizon and Alltel,
which is 3 times faster that EDGE, used by Cingular and T-mobile. It
downgrades to GPRS data speeds where EDGE is not available. Sprint data
card users regularly get download speeds of 1200-1800 kbps here in the
States. The max is 2400 kbps. The EVDO speed advantage only benefits
you in the US so you might want to compare the T-mobile and Cingular Blackberry
pricing too.
Only problem is that you would need a US service plan ($39 for 450 daytime
minutes, unlimited nights 7pm-7am & weekends), the $39.99 Blackberry
unlimited data option and the $20 unlimited overseas data add-on. That
would come to $99/month plus tax, which may be more than you want to pay.
While it is well worth it when traveling through several countries, you would
still want to use a local sim card for cheaper voice calls when staying in a
single country/region for a while.
Just wanted to let you know of new possibilities.
www.blackberry8830.com www.blackberry8800series.com/8800demo www.blackberryforums.com/general-8800-series-discussion www.blackberry8800series.com/assets/documents/8830_WorldEdition_ENG.pdf www.sprintpcs.com/common/popups/pop-blackberryDataPack.html www.sprintenterprise.com/8830
Thank you, Andy HoboTraveler.com https://www.hobotraveler.com/blogger.html
2007-05-10
