Local SIM cards for South Africa and Senegal and a resource for Europe and Prepaid Data Around the World

March 21, 2013

Why I Stay Connected When Travelling Internationally and How an Unlocked iPhone Helps Me Feel Safe Travelling Solo:

Staying connected while travelling solo internationally is essential for me. I do so to stay in touch with my husband and 2 boys via FaceTime and so they know my whereabouts in case anything should happen. I also like to stay “connected” as an extra measure of safety.

Reasons to Stay Connected

To use Google’s street view to scout the neighbourhood of the hostel/hotel I’m going to be staying at ahead of time. I can see what amenities are nearby and what the neighbourhood is like.
To open google maps and follow the “blue dot” to see if your taxi is taking you in the right direction. It helps to guard against taxi ripoffs. Prior to visiting Prague, I had read in various travel forums about the potential to be overcharged especially from the train station. I usually take a taxi when I arrive, especially at night. I used my iPhone to look up the typical cost using the World Taximeter website. By having data available, I was able to keep more of my Koruna as I could debate the cost of said trip. My driver went out of the way from the train station to the hotel so I knew he was overcharging me thanks to Google maps and world taximeter. He didn’t contest told and charged me less than what he initially asked for.
To use a Translate app such as iTranslate or Google translate. It helps me to say what I need to.

Most smartphone users know the high costs of data and roaming while travelling. So what do you do to keep costs to an affordable amount? If you have an unlocked phone you can purchase a local SIM card and prepaid data.

Purchasing an SIM card & prepaid data in South Africa:

Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport: There are several wireless provider shops near the international arrivals area. I went with Vodacom. It was easy to get set up and it was about $30-35 CAD for 1gb data, 20 minutes of calls to South Africa and texting.

Cape Town airport: There are several wireless provider shops after arrival in the Cape Town airport as well.

If you should need to top up, you can do so at any Vodacom shop or at stores like Pick n pay where you purchase of voucher for a certain amount and follow the prompts on your phone to credit your SIM card/phone number with the codes from the voucher. It’s simple and it’s in English.

Purchasing an SIM card & prepaid data in Senegal, West Africa:

In Dakar and many towns outside of Dakar there are Orange stores as well as resellers everywhere. You can barely go a few blocks without seeing an Orange sign. You can even find their prepaid cards while stuck in traffic from the vendors
that come to your window.

To purchase data service in Senegal, follow these steps.

Purchase a microSIM card. If none are available, purchase a regular sized one and have it cut or cut it yourself.
Purchase either 10,000 (1-week internet) or 25,000 CFA (1 month internet) at any reseller. You will get a scratch card with the pertinent information.
Important: Visit www.passorange.sn to activate the prepaid card and choose which service you’d like.

Open up your browser and you should see that you’re connected.

Activating your Orange prepaid data card

If your phone is locked:

A locked phone means that you cannot change your SIM card from that of your usual wireless provider. You have to either “roam” (costly), rent (if available), buy something local or wait for a wifi connection. You can read that post here.

A Regional SIM card and staying connected in Europe:

In March 2012, I travelled solo to 8 cities in 6 countries in Europe and chose IPhoneTrip for convenience as they provide data plans for the world, a region or one country. I chose coverage for Europe so I could travel seamlessly from one country to the next rather than getting a local SIM card because I was only in some places 24-48 hours. I didn’t want to have interrupted service and I also didn’t want to spend my time having to find an SIM card on arrival. The service providers automatically switched as I entered a new country and I barely noticed.

iPhoneTrip sends you an SIM card as well as a backup SIM card in case there is something wrong with the first one. Rental is for a minimum of 7 days. At the time of rental, it was $11.99 USD per day for unlimited data. I only needed data as I use apps such as Vonage and Skype to make phone calls and iMessage and What’s App or Facebook messenger. My phone also worked as a wifi hotspot (tethering) so I could share my data with up to 5 devices if I wanted to. Fellow passengers on the tour bus to Budapest from Vienna became my best friends 😉

Prepaid SIM cards and Data Plans Around The World:

Here’s a great site that Susan of Vibrant Travels tweeted to me. It lists Prepaid SIM cards with data by country. http://prepaidwithdata.wikia.com/wiki/Prepaid_SIM_with_data

I checked Senegal and it’s not up to date, but I added a comment with some information. I also checked South Africa and it seemed pretty up to date. So please do further research before you travel before relying solely on the information presented.

There is definitely something to be said for wandering about and getting “lost” and disconnecting, but sometimes it is not okay to do so. For those of us that need or want to stay connected, I hope these tips will help you.

Until next time,

Andrea… and my wandering iPhone

Data Plans + International travel + the iPhone

airplane raindrops — Lufthansa flight from London Heathrow to Munich

If you are like me, you want mobile data when you travel internationally and don’t want to have to pay the incredible roaming prices your wireless provider charges. Personally I like to and need to stay in touch with family at home as well as tweet, facebook and instagram my way around the world. Since March 2011 I have tried 3 companies that specialize in providing data for international travel. In my case, travel was to the United States, the UK and Europe as I am in Toronto, Canada. I am going to discuss my experiences with each of the companies and the service they provide. Since pricing is fluid, I won’t discuss that, but will say that it is much cheaper than what your home wireless providers charge.

I generally go for the data only option as there are a number of apps that I use for video calling, phone calling and texting so I personally don’t need the phone or texting options. I won’t discuss the travel apps I use in this post but will do so in coming days. Stay tuned.

The first company I used for travel to London, UK was Tep Wireless, previously known as Fonmigo. In March 2011, I travelled to London and was there for 2 days. I had a locked iPhone 4 at the time so I could not use another sim card. I had 2 choices, I could either rent a smartphone or rent a pocket wifi device. I went with the pocket wifi since I wanted to be able to use my own iPhone that was already loaded with my preferred apps.

With Tep wireless you could either pick up the device or have it delivered to your home or destination. I went with the pick up option as there is a pick up location at Heathrow. Upon pick up I found that the battery for the unit was completely drained and there wasn’t a ‘storefront’ so I couldn’t get another device or battery. Once that was resolved, the unit worked very well all over London. I was also able to get data in Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor. With a portable wifi unit you can connect up to 5 devices so my friend that travelled with me also had data. Once you are finished with the device you put it in the mail with the pre paid envelope they provide in London. I did voice my concerns about the drained unit after I returned home and they were quick to respond and remedy the situation. Great customer service on their part.

In March 2012, I travelled to 8 cities (Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Munich, Innsbruck, Paris and London) in 6 countries in Europe. This time I went with iPhoneTrip. I now own an unlocked
iPhone 4s so I could use any sim card. IPhoneTrip provides sim card rental for all over the world. If you don’t have an unlocked device you could rent a portable wifi unit or iPhone from them. With iPhoneTrip they mail you a sim card as well as a back up sim card. Rental is for a minimum of 7 days. Since I was going all over Europe I went with the Europe option to have a seamless connection. Upon arrival in the UK I found that they had some technical problems which meant a significant delay in service. Fortunately once that was resolved the connection was fantastic and was indeed seamless from country to country. I did call iPhoneTrip while in London and their customer service was great as well.

In May 2012, I travelled to New York City and used iPhoneTrip for that visit as well. This time service was without a hitch and the data connection was great.

In July 2012, I travelled to Washington state and Oregon. I was only going to be in the United States for 3 days so I didn’t want to use iPhoneTrip as their minimum service is 7 days. I went with a Canadian based company called Roam Mobility. They provide a few different options but since I have an unlocked phone I went with the sim card option. With Roam Mobility you can purchase a sim card for $19.95 CAD in a number of locations around Canada. I was in British Columbia at the time so picked up a sim card at a store in Abbotsford where I was staying with friends. Their service is a ‘pay-as-you-go’ type service with 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 day options for talk, text and data, talk and text or data only. I went with the talk, text and data option for 3 days. The talk and text was unlimited and you get a US phone number. I had no issues signing up and activating online. I did have a minor problem connecting to data but was able to call customer service to get it resolved easily. Unfortunately if you have an iPhone you are currently limited to 2G or Edge service while in the United States as their data partner is T Mobile. As a result it was slower than the 3G service I’m used to but was still okay and workable for light surfing, email, facebook and twitter. I tweeted to them while in Washington and learned that T Mobile will be making changes and should have 3G and 4G by the end of the year. Again, great customer service with Roam Mobility both on the phone and on twitter.

Until next time,

Andrea… and my wandering iPhone