It covers several things :-

1. Who needs internet-access = Individuals, Peace Centres, Telecentres, etc.
2. Methods (technologies) that you can use with your phone to access the internet, such as Dial-up, GPRS/EDGE and 3G, CSD (GSM Data).
3. Browsing the internet using your Mobile Phone handset display.
4. Browsing the internet on a computer interfaced to your Mobile Phone.

See also: Ricardo (all my projects), GprsPhoneComputerSystem (for Peace Centres, etc), BluetoothPhoneIncluder, ElectronicLibraries

Contents of this page Status of this page    Who needs internet-access from a mobile phone    Use of GPRS Internet Access by Peace Centres    Methods and technologies to access the internet using a mobile phone    Dial-up    GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)    GPRS (General Packet Radio System)    EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution)    3G - 3rd Generation Mobile Phone Service    CSD (GSM Data)    HSCSD - High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data    WAP - Wireless Application Protocol    Browsing the internet using your Mobile Phone handset display    Browser programs on Mobile Phones    Browsing the internet on a computer controlling your Mobile Phone    My experience of GPRS internet-access    Mobile Phone companies with GPRS Services in Kenya    Setting up your computer's internet browser to use the phone    Get your phone company to enable GPRS on your phone.    Connect your phone to the computer, by Bluetooth, Infrared or USB Cable    Turn on Infrared if you are using this connection    Turn on the Modem in your phone    Make your computer recognise the modem    Set up a Dial-Up Connection that uses the phone    Make this Dial Up Connection the Internet Explorer default connection    Shutdown and re-start the computer    Test the internet connection    Old notes for tidy up    Controlling your GPRS Costs    Email by Mobile Phone    Experience of using GPRS in Kenya    VillagePhone: Using a Cellphone Repeater to boost access to 25 Kilometers    Legality of Cellular Repeaters    MTN Village Phone - Uganda    GPRS internet access by mobile phone in Uganda    GPRS internet access by mobile phone in Tanzania    Sending airtime to people in East Africa    The Sente payment system in Uganda    Commercial Mobile Phone Payment Services    SMS to Email services    Safaricom new website design and enabling GPRS internet access    Safaricom Kenya 9600 Dial-Up Internet Access    Email me for help    AboutThisPage

Status of this page    

Who needs internet-access from a mobile phone    

• Individuals
• Peace Centres (see section below)
• Telecentres
• Internet Cafes
• Schools
• Business
• NGOs

Use of GPRS Internet Access by Peace Centres    

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistichelping/message/2371

Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:48 am

Ricardo:

Dear All

it's been mentioned that Safaricom may help the peace afforts by sponsoring the Peace Centre idea. It would great if Safaricom can help the re-building of Kenya through their phone services (and the other phone companies too).

Quite a few people in Kenya aren't aware that the phones they already own can be enabled to access the internet, for email, search, etc, just by contacting Safaricom (or whichever company they use). They just need to ask them to enable 'GPRS access' (General Packet Radio Service), the data-packet service. Some, but not all phones support this.

Customers can request this in several ways; at a Safaricom shop, by phoning customer services or by sending an SMS to an automated service.

The cost of data is paid by the customer, paying by the kilobyte for the web-pages they access, not by the minute. Inactivity costs nothing. There is no monthly 'internet subscription'. If you don't use any kilobytes for some time, you pay nothing, so there is nothing to lose by having GPRS enabled. I'm not a salesman, by the way!

A slight difficulty is finding all the GPRS information on the Safaricom (or Celtel) website. It's a little bit fragmented and hard to see what applies to business or individual customers, pre-paid and post-paid. It would be good of their website could have a single starting page for people who want internet access on their phones.

At the moment you have to just search for GPRS and read everything. It's easier to visit a shop and talk to someone at the moment.

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default.asp

At the moment, I'm talking to various people such as Ken Owino in Kenya and looking at producing a guide myself to be called something like 'Accessing the internet from your mobile phone'.

There are several reason for creating this guide, promoting phone internet access...

1. People could use their phones for internet access, without the travelling-time and expense of internet cafes.

2. In unsafe areas, people can access the internet from home without having to walk to internet cafes.

3. It may help Pyramid of Peace members who are co-ordinationg peace efforts, if they can read/write emails and Yahoo Group messages from anywhere.

4. Any of the offline Telecentres within the Kentel Telecentre movement can add internet-access to their range of services. They can do this just for the price of a phone that support GPRS and a method of linking it to one of their PCs (USB Cable, USB Infrared adapter or USB Bluetooth adapter).

4. It may help the economy (online and offline), if a lot of people start using the internet, as individuals and businesses.

5. Internet access from phones can lead onto computer-based access later, from Desktop PCs and Laptops, as incomes rise.

6. It should help computer-literacy, leading to new job skills.

7. Like any type of internet access, it opens up national and international communication for people to form any type of 'virtual community' to shares ideas, knowledge and help on any subject (farming, eduction, health, business, shopping, hobbies, sports, etc).

If anyone manages to talk to the Safaricom or Celtel CEO or management, then although the first thing on the agenda is sponsorship of Peace Centres, it would be good to raise the issue of promoting internet-access from phones more widely than at present, to help re-build the country.

It's actually in the phone companies own interest, not a sacrifice, to provide more information on their phone-based internet services on their website, especially for ordinary pre-paid, non-business customers. It would generate more business for them.

Methods and technologies to access the internet using a mobile phone    

Dial-up    

You use a browser on the phone, such as Opera, to access the internet. It uses a built-in modem to dial your ISPs modem at the local telephone exchange/office/cabinet. It is not 'always on', your browser dials the number of the ISP when you want to access the internet, and ends the call when you finish the session or end the call.

If you're using a computer, it controls the phone via Bluetooth radio link, IRDa Infra Red link or USB Cable link, commanding it to dial out and using it's modem.

GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM

GPRS (General Packet Radio System)    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Packet_Radio_Service

This is an 'always on' technology for accessing the internet. Instead of paying by the minute to access the internet, you pay by the kilobyte of data, so periods of inactivity cost you nothing. You pay for the data when you access a web-page, but if you spend a long time reading it, there's no extra charge.

Data is transferred as packets of digital data at high speed, building on the digital nature of GSM, not like previous generations of phone systems, which used a modem (modulator/demodulator) with sound-tones representing the 0s and 1s and a slow bit-rate.

EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution)    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution

A faster version of GPRS . If your phone company provides it on a particular area, your phone can use it. In areas without EDGE, the connection will drop back to GPRS and slow down.

EDGE can carry data speeds up to 236.8 kbit/s.

3G - 3rd Generation Mobile Phone Service    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G

3G is built on top of GPRS/EDGE or an alternative UMTS. It allows the transmission of 384 kbit/s for mobile systems and 2 Mb/s for stationary systems. However, it is usually expensive. It allows advanced services, TV and video-phones.

CSD (GSM Data)    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_Switched_Data Wikipedia CSD (GSM Data)

Unlike GPRS, which is charged by the kilobyte of data and inactivity while you're reading web-pages costs nothing, CDS is charged like a voice-call, by the minute. However, if you have some 'free minutes', charging by the minute can be a good thing (see the Wikipedia article).

HSCSD - High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Circuit-Switched_Data

WAP - Wireless Application Protocol    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Application_Protocol

This isn't a connection method, it's a service once you're connected, a style of page. This lets you access small, specially formatted WAP pages and sites written in WML (Wireless Markup Language) format, not normal web-pages written using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). They are designed for reading on a mobile phone handset and only transfer a small amount of data. You don't get access to the whole World Wide Web, just a few specially-produced services, like Google Search, sports score, weather, news, taxis, etc.

WAP addresses usually use a 'wap' prefix, but it's not compulsory...

http://wap.yahoo.com/ instead of the World Wide Web's http://www.yahoo.com/

Useful site... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WAP_access

The phone uses a WAP browser program to access WAP sites.

For an example of instructions on how to connect, see the Safaricom (Kenya) page at...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default2.asp?active_page_id=341

WAP doesn't seem to be used by many people, since you can only access a small number of specially-formatted WAP sites, not the full internet. If you're using a large computer display, not a mobile phone, then GPRS is a lot better, since you can access any page on the whole World Wide Web.

Browsing the internet using your Mobile Phone handset display    

Your mobile phone company website should have instructions on how to configure your phone for GPRS, numbers to dial, etc. Usually, you fill in an online form and the website sends an SMS Text Message to your phone with configuration details, which you store in the phone. This only has to be done once to set up dial-up or GPRS/EDGE/3G access.

If you don't have access to the website, you can call your phone company's Customer Services people to ask how to set up GPRS. They may send you an SMS to set it up.

Kenya Safaricom customer services is on phone number 123.

In the 'Browser programs on Mobile Phones' section of this page, there are instructions for downloading the free Opera Mini browser program onto your phone, if your phone doesn't have a browser program already, or the Opera Mini program offers more features.

Browser programs on Mobile Phones    

http://www.opera.com/products/

There are 2 versions :-

• Opera Mini, for ordinary phones.
• Opera Mobile, for Smartphones and PDAs.

You can download Opera on a PC, then transfer it to the phone in one of these ways :-

• Via the USB Cable supplied with the phone.
• Via a PC USB Bluetooth adapter, to a Bluetooth phone.
• Via a PC USB IrDA Infrared adapter, to an IrDA phone.

Some phones appear to the PC like a USB Flash Drive. You can use Windows Explorer to copy Opera from the PC Drive C: or 'My Documents' to the phone (which may appear as Drive E: or F: ).

Browsing the internet on a computer controlling your Mobile Phone    

The computer controls the phone and uses Dial-Up, GPRS/EDGE or 3G communication standards to access the internet.

This is a good way to do it, since blue-tooth drains very little power from the laptop battery. Other options are IRDa Infra-red link (the computer and phone must be in line of sight) or a USB cable - an article said the cable should be produced by the phone manufacturer, not a 3rd party (details on the Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, etc, website).

My experience of GPRS internet-access    

Mobile Phone companies with GPRS Services in Kenya    

See :-

Safaricom Support phone numbers...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=97

Safaricom (Kenya) Services, Data and Messaging Services (GPRS, etc) ...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default2.asp?active_page_id=116

I used the site-search box for 'GPRS' and found 'GPRS How to get connected', which covers what plan and phone-type you need, and the settings...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default2.asp?active_page_id=194

Celtel (Kenya) - See Phone Services, Access page - GPRS/EDGE Tarriffs (Pay-as-you-go or Monthly 25MB/150MB Bundles)...

http://www.ke.celtel.com/en/phone-services/celtel-access/index.html

For Celtel in other countries, see :-

http://www.celtel.com/en/index.html

Setting up your computer's internet browser to use the phone    

1. Get your phone company to enable GPRS on your phone.
2. Connect your phone to the computer, by Bluetooth, Infrared or USB Cable.
3. Turn on Infrared if you are using this connection.
4. Turn on the Modem in your phone.
5. If your computer doesn't auto-detect the new modem, force the computer to detect it via the Control Panel, 'Add new hardware' mechanism.
6. Set up a Dial-Up Connection that uses the phone. Most people will use a program supplied by their phone manufacturer (Nokia PC Suite, etc), or do it manually via Control Panel, Network Connections.
7. Make this Dial-Up Connection the 'default' connection that Internet Explorer always uses.
8. Test the connection by running Internet Explorer and visiting new pages.

Get your phone company to enable GPRS on your phone.    

Connect your phone to the computer, by Bluetooth, Infrared or USB Cable    

1. Install a USB Bluetooth adapter on your PC or Laptop, according to the instruction leaflet that comes with it. It looks like a USB memory stick and plugs into a USB port. Most online/offline computer shops sell them.
2. The USB Bluetooth adapter will either use Microsoft driver programs, or it will come with its own mini-CD with driver programs.
3. You need to go through a one-time 'bluetooth pairing' process between your computer and phone, and enter the same PIN number on both devices.

1. Install a USB Infared adapter on your PC, according to the instruction leaflet that comes with it. It looks like a USB memory stick and plugs into a USB port. Most online/offline computer shops sell them. If you're using a laptop, it should have an Infrared port already.
2. The USB Infrared adapter will either use Microsoft driver programs, or it will come with its own mini-CD with driver programs.
3. The laptop infrared port will have drivers supplied by the laptop manufacturer on CD or on their website, or use drivers that come with Micrsoft Windows XP, or other operating system.

You may have received a USB Cable when you bought your phone. If not, then you can buy one, but you must get a genuine USB Cable made by your phone manufacturer, not a cheap fake that doesn't work. Genuine cables can be expensive, perhaps $40. If your phone has Bluetooth or Infrared, then it's cheaper and easier to use that.

Turn on Infrared if you are using this connection    

Turn on the Modem in your phone    

Make your computer recognise the modem    

Detection: If your computer doesn't auto-detect the new modem when you turn it on in the phone menus, you can force the computer to detect it via the Control Panel, 'Add new hardware' mechanism. You can also shutdown and re-start the computer to detect it.

Set up a Dial-Up Connection that uses the phone    

Another option in isolated areas is for a friend to download the files to their phone or laptop (without installing them), then beam them across to your computer by Bluetooth or Infrared.

If your phone manufacturer doesn't supply a free program to set up the connection, you can set up a Dial Up Networking connection manually, via Start button, settings, Control Panel, Network Connections, 'Create a new connection' (top left).

Nokia and Sony Ericsson provide free programs, but I don't think Motorola does. They suggest buying Avanquest Motorola Mobile Phone Tools (MPT), for about $40 to $50. The program detects what phone-model and phone-service you have, then sets up all the software.

http://www.avanquestusa.com/ 'Motorola Mobile Phone Tools' or 'Mobile Phone Tools 4' (click 'More Info').

Make this Dial Up Connection the Internet Explorer default connection    

Run Internet Explorer and go to the Tools menu, Internet Connections, and select the Connections tab. In the list of connections, click the name of the new connection to your phone, such as 'Nokia N73'. Now click the 'Set Default' button, to make it the default connection, then click OK to close the dialog. If the 'Set Default' button is greyed out, then your connection is already the default. Shutdown Internet Explorer. The next time you use it, it will use the phone to connect to the internet.

Shutdown and re-start the computer    

Test the internet connection    

Old notes for tidy up    

If you're in Kenya, please read this guide that Patrick Bunyali Kamoyani wrote for Safaricom and Celtel...

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dd894dz5_0cwxd23sx

For any country, here are some instructions from me...

How to configure the computer to use the phone-connection:

1. First, you need to install a Bluetooth dongle/adapter and the software that comes with it on CD.

2. You turn on Bluetooth on the PC and the Bluetooth Phone.

3. Whenever 2 devices communicate by Bluetooth, you go through a one-time 'pairing' process and choose a PIN Number for the connection. This allows the two Bluetooth device to communicate (the PC and Bluetooth Phone in this case). For security, to stop people spying on your communication, emails and passwords, this should be a long random number, such as 857640385692, not something easy to guess like 123.

See http://www.filesaveas.com/belkinusb.html for instructions and pictures.

The instructions for your particular USB Bluetooth adaptor/dongle may be slightly different. Some adaptors use the Windows XP Service Pack 2 driver, some use their own driver, supplied on a small CD.

The instructions say 'Click the Bluetooth icon in the system tray'. You may need to right-click it and select 'Add a Bluetooth device'.

After pairing the PC and Phone, you can use the Bluetooth Phone's GPRS facility to access the internet (see links below).

For information on how to set up GPRS, please visit your mobile phone company website and search for 'GPRS', and read the manual for your phone (the printed version supplied with your phone, a PDF file on CD or a PDF file on the phone manufacturer's website, 'support' section).

The settings you are looking for are things like the APN (Access Point Node) Address (in the form - APN address : btmobile.bt.com), as shown in this page for UK GPRS services...

http://www.filesaveas.com/gprs.html - GPRS

Also, please read these articles...

http://www.filesaveas.com/bluetooth.html - Bluetooth

http://www.filesaveas.com/gprsconnect.html#laptop - GPRS on a Laptop

GPRS is 'always on'. You pay per kilobyte, so you may want to turn off pictures, leaving just the text. See instructions on this page for Internet Explorer (Tools, Internet Options, etc).

Connection to the internet using a PC/Laptop, USB Cable and GPRS Phone:

If you use a USB Cable instead of Bluetooth to connect your PC/Laptop to a GPRS phone, discussion forums say that you set up the modem in your phone via Start Menu, Settings, Control Panel, Phone and Modem icon. Note - The cable needs to be made by the phone manufacturer (Nokia, Ericsson, etc), not a cheap 3rd party USB cable, which often doesn't have a full set of connector-pins.

Has anyone done this by USB Cable with Internet Explorer? Please edit instructions in here or email me. I imagine it uses Control Panel, Create new connection, plus some settings.

Until I can find the information to manually configure a browser, or a freeware program to configure the browser, here's a link to a commercial program costing $39.99 that does it. The program detects what phone-model and phone-service you have, then sets up all the software.

http://www.avanquestusa.com/ Mobile PhoneTools 4 (click 'Learn More')

Controlling your GPRS Costs    

Text-only browsing: Most phone-handsets or phone-service websites allow you to switch from graphics-mode to text-only mode. This dramatically reduces the amount of data you receive and get charged for. Your phone manual or PDF descibes the phone menu options to switch modes.

If you use mobile phone pre-payment cards, then this automatically limits the maximum amount you can spend on GPRS calls. When the card is used-up, the service/call stops, unlike monthly direct-debit plans.

On most phones, you can also monitor how much you're spending via the reports on the Call Register screens. On my Nokia phone, I go to...

• Call register
• -GPRS data counter
• ---GPRS data counter

1. Data sent in last session (in kilobytes)
2. Data received in last session (in kilobytes)
3. All sent data (in kilobytes)
4. All received data (in kilobytes)
5. Clear counters

• ---GPRS connection timer

1. Duration of last session
2. Duration of all sessions
3. Clear timers

A typical web-page in text-only mode is 1K-4K bytes.

If you're browsing using a computer and GPRS phone, you can select text-only browsing in Internet Explorer as follows (it's similar for other browsers - search for 'text-only browsing' articles on the net) :-

• From the Tools menu, select 'Internet Options' and click the 'Advanced' tab.
• Scroll down to the 'Multimedia' segment and uncheck the boxes in front of...
• Play Animations
• Play sounds
• Play Video
• Show Pictures.
• Click OK.

If you're browsing on a Computer (PC or Laptop)+GPRS Phone, then it's worth checking to see whether using the Yahoo Mail page http://m.yahoo.com/ for small mobile-phone screens uses less GPRS data than the standard web page for full-size computer monitors, http://mail.yahoo.com/ .

In the UK, I find that http://m.yahoo.com/ instantly re-directs to http://uk.m.yahoo.com/ . Maybe it will re-direct to http://ke.m.yahoo.com/ in Kenya (tz or ug for Tanzania and Uganda). So, it's better to bookmark the page it re-directs to, and go there directly in future, to save downloading 2 pages.

Using the mobile-phone page http://m.yahoo.com/ on a computer can be used at the same time as browsing in text-only mode, so you use 2 cost-saving measures together.

Email by Mobile Phone    

If you're using a computer linked by bluetooth to a mobile phone for email, then it's best to use a web-based email service, such as Yahoo Mail. You can then use any of the World Wide Web/internet-access methods on this page to access your email. This would be a lot easier than configuring an Email Client-Program, such as Microsoft Outlook, to use the phone link.

For Yahoo Mail, please read the info at http://mobile.yahoo.com/ , Mobile Services menu, Mail.

On your phone, you can read/write Yahoo Mail on a screen specially formatted for phone displays, by visiting http://m.yahoo.com/mail

Experience of using GPRS in Kenya    

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CawdTeachersTalking/message/806

VillagePhone: Using a Cellphone Repeater to boost access to 25 Kilometers    

http://www.mtnvillagephone.co.ug/

BBC News - Mobile Phones reach Ugandan villages

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7071636.stm

This mentions a 'booster antenna' (Cellular Repeater http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_repeater) on the roof of a house that can pick up signals from mobile phone base stations situated up to 25 kilometres away. I've done a bit more research on these on the internet in case they are of interest to other people in Africa.

In Uganda, MTN VillagePhone uses a mobile phone in a remote village and links it to a mobile phone mast up to 25 Kilometers away using a 'Cellphone Repeater'. The phone is owned and operated by a local volunteer, from a kiosk, house or shop. The equipment and airtime to set up the business can be paid for by a small loan from a Micro-Finance Initiative (MFI), from the owner/operator's own savings, family and friends, a community club, etc.

In the USA, some cellphone repeaters are advertised with a range of up to 50 miles/80 KM.

The diagram on this page shows how the signal from a phone inside/near a building is picked up by a small internal antenna, amplified by a Cellular Repeater and re-broadcast via a roof-mounted antenna over many miles/kilometers to a mobile phone base-station. A simpler system, used by MTN VillagePhone, just connects the phone by cable to the Cellular Repeater amplifier and roof-mounted antenna.

http://www.cellantenna.co.uk/repeater/building_repeater.htm

Legality of Cellular Repeaters    

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/enforcement/jammers/

MTN Village Phone - Uganda    

http://www.mtn.co.ug/payphone/villagephone.htm

MTN villagePhone extends telecommunications access to rural villages across Uganda, saving them travelling many kilometers to use a phone. It was pioneered in Bangladesh, where there now are over 37,000 operators, financed by micro-loans.

See the photo on this page which shows all the supplied equipment for the “business in a box” (Phone, Antenna, cable, etc)...

http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what_we_do/technology_programs/village_phone_direct/faq_village_phone_direct/

This photo-presentation on VillagePhone by Jan Chipchase of Nokia Research is very good (click photos for larger version)...

http://www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/by_location/uganda/kansensero/

It says "The Village Phone extends regular base station cellular coverage from around 15 kilometers to around 30 kilometers through the use of a village phone kit - an antenna and ten meter cable (shown above) and a coupler (shown below) connected to a regular Nokia 1100 mobile phone (a really low-spec cheap phone - Ricardo) plus of course, a micro-finance loan. The net result? In a number of cases it provides the first convenient, reliable and affordable connectivity to the outside world for many rural communities as well as providing a stable income for the local entrepreneur that takes out the loan".

For the full .pdf presentation, see this file (especially the 'antenna on a pole' photo on page 4)...

http://research.nokia.com/files/JanChipchase_VillagePhone_vFinal_External.pdf

or the Powerpoint presentation with notes at...

http://research.nokia.com/files/JanChipchase_VillagePhone_vFinal_External.ppt

Here's a VillagePhone video on the Grameen Bank Microfinance site (needs broadband)...

http://www.grameenfoundation.org/where_we_work/sub_saharan_africa/uganda/village_phone_uganda_video/

To get more information or apply to become a VillagePhone operator, see...

http://www.mtnvillagephone.co.ug/contact.htm

It would be good to mention the 'Minimalist TeleCenters' idea to VillagePhone, allowing operators to provide printing/scanning/photocopying, etc, using a Bluetooth Phone + Bluetooth Printer or a Phone with SD Memory Card Slot + Printer with SD Card Slot. It would be farily cheap to set up, using a further micro-loan. The 25000 villages where VillagePhone and Grameen Bank operate could all benefit from this. See BluetoothPhoneIncluder page.

GPRS internet access by mobile phone in Uganda    

Celtel Uganda http://www.ug.celtel.com/en/

Celtel signal coverage http://www.ug.celtel.com/en/get-connected/coverage/index.html

Celtel Uganda GPRS/EDGE Service (using a GC85 Sony Ericsson PC card) http://www.ug.celtel.com/en/phone-services/gprs/index.html

GC85 Sony Ericsson PC card description http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/pccards/overview/gc85?cc=ae&lc=en

MTN Uganda http://www.mtn.co.ug/

MTNInternet Lite for personal customers - mentions GPRS

For advice on how to set up GPRS, this page says you can call MTN Customer Support on 123. They should provide the settings that you need to enter, when configuring GPRS on you phone.

http://www.mtn.co.ug/personal/vas.htm

MTNInternet Lite for business users - mentions GPRS http://www.mtn.co.ug/business/yelloaccess.htm

MTN Costs - 2.5 UGX per kilobyte for MTNInternet Lite http://www.mtn.co.ug/personal/paygo.htm

MTN Village Phone - micro-finance phone service to Ugandan Villages http://www.mtnvillagephone.co.ug/

Uganda Telecom http://www.utl.co.ug/

Uganda Telecom GPRS Manual - See cost link - 2.0 UGX per kilobyte http://www.utl.co.ug/Gprs/index.html

GPRS internet access by mobile phone in Tanzania    

Hi Ricardo!!!

I would like to tell you that I have done a simple research to all three companies, that is Celtel, Tigo and Vodacom and the following are charges charged by all three companies.

Vodacom (more info on http://www.vodacom.co.tz )

They have two kind of services the first one is by pay per use and another one is called my megabyte which is monthly subscription

For MyMeg service the following are the charges.

A bandwidth of 10Mb costs Tshs 1,800 per month for a Tshs 180/- per Mb

A bandwidth of 20Mb costs Tshs 3,600 per month for a Tshs 180/- per Mb

A bandwidth of 100Mb costs Tshs 15,000 per month for a Tshs 180/- per Mb

A bandwidth of 250Mb costs Tshs 37,500 per month for a Tshs 180/- per Mb

A bandwidth of 500Mb costs Tshs 60,000 per month for a Tshs 150/- per Mb

A bandwidth of 1Gb costs Tshs 92,160 per month for a Tshs 120/- per Mb

A bandwidth of 2Gb costs Tshs 163,840 per month for a Tshs 120/- per Mb

And for Celtel (more infos:: http://www.celtel.co.tz ) they have two services that is Pay per Use and also the subscription per month same as vodas but the minimum is

Tshs 5000 for 25 Mb, others are 100Mb for shs 25,000/- and Tshs 60000 for 600Mb.

Tigo(more infos: http://www.tigo.co.tz/ ) has only one service and that is pay per use with costs Tshs 100 per Mb, but if a person wants he/she can subscribe for a monthly service which costs 100,000/- which includes both GPRS data transfer and your phone calls.

Yours

Kims

Sending airtime to people in East Africa    

There are several companies that allow people anywhere in the world to send mobile phone airtime to people in East Africa.

See the page we set up for sending airtime during the 2008 election crisis in Kenya...

SendingAirtime

Sending airtime could be a good for several things, such as :-

a) It would be a good way to let groups in Africa have a bit of internet access each month, enough for email at least.

b) It could be used as a way to 'pay' people for computer/internet-based work that they do as part of the IncomeFromSmallComputerRelatedTasks or other KnowledgeWork schemes.

The recipient could either use the airtime for voice/internet calls or, the VillagePhone operator can give them cash minus a 10% commission (an article I read says they use the phone like an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) this way).

Kenya airtime services:

http://www.mamamikes.com/ - Pointed out by Asif Daya, a long-time user.

http://www.sambazanow.com/

Uganda airtime services:

Sendairtime.com - a company for people in Europe/North America to send airtime to people in East Africa, paying by credit card. For people using MTN, Celtel or Uganda Telecom

http://www.sendairtime.com/

MTN Web2U - Another company that allows people in Europe/North America to send airtime to people using MTN in Uganda.

http://www.simbashop.com/

The Sente payment system in Uganda    

The recipient can either use the airtime for voice/internet calls or the village phone operator can give them cash, minus a commission of say 10%. The operator may make additional profit by selling the airtime to other villagers at a higher price per minute than it cost the sender.

For more details, search for 'sente' on page http://www.janchipchase.com/sharedphoneuse

Commercial Mobile Phone Payment Services    

http:www.infodev.org.

• MTN: http://www.mtn.co.za/
• Smart Communications: http://www.smart.com.ph/
• Funadamo: http://www.fundamo.com/
• Safari.com: http://safari.com/

SMS to Email services    

For example Kenya Safaricom this SMS2Email service

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default2.asp?active_page_id=122

There are also some websites that anyone can use to send SMSs from a web-based form to a phone and to convert emails to SMS messages or SMS to Email. These may be of use to some people during the crisis in Kenya. There are many of these websites, so just do a Google search for 'sms to email'.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=sms+to+email&meta=

Safaricom new website design and enabling GPRS internet access    

From http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/learnhowtolearn/message/127

Dear All

Safaricom have completely re-designed their website. It now looks very professional and well-organized. The old design made it very difficult to find information on getting your phone enabled for GPRS internet-access.

If you or anyone you know needs to get GPRS enabled, please go to a Safaricom shop or call one of the Safaricom Support phone numbers on this page, and ask them "Can you enable GPRS internet access on my phone. It's a Nokia xxxx". They will tell you whether your phone supports GPRS, where you pay by the Kilobyte for web-pages etc, or WAP where you pay by the minute, or no data services at all...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=97

You can also enable GPRS automatically, by sending an SMS message with '<Make of phone> GPRS' to 416, such as 'NOKIA GPRS'. See this page for details...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=167&no_cache=1&sword_list[]=gprs

Even on a phone without GPRS or WAP, you may still be able to use their SMS-to-Email and Email-to-SMS service, to do a few useful things on the internet. For example, posting messages to Yahoo Groups by sending an Email (converted from an SMS). See Yahoo Groups Help pages for details of how to post a message.

Safaricom SMS to Email, Email to SMS...

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=55

Safaricom has a Sitemap here, listing all their pages and services. All the page titles listed in black are actually clickable links.

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=34

Ricardo April 8, 2008 0:03 CET

Safaricom Kenya 9600 Dial-Up Internet Access    

http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=259&no_cache=1&sword_list[]=wap

...or search for 'Safaricom Online'.

Prices :-

• Prepaid: Kshs 10.00 inclusive of taxes
• Post Paid: Kshs. 8.00 exclusive of taxes

Email me for help    

Ricardo (England)

ricardoolpc@yahoo.co.uk

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• PageType=Endeavor
• EndeavorLeader=Ricardo
• EndeavorTeam=Ricardo
• EndeavorSummary=Explaining 'Internet Access by Mobile Phone'.
• PageByRicardo=Explaining 'Internet Access by Mobile Phone'.

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