Can a cell phone be rented or purchased in Windhoek that would be usable in both Namibia and Botswana, assuming coverage in the areas in question? I'm doing a ranch hunt in Botswana, followed by a week in the Caprivi, with a few days in and around Windhoek mixed in. I'm about as non-techie as it is possible to be and still be considered a sentient being. Amazingly, I've left this question until the day before I leave because only now is the pressure being applied here at home for me to call whenever possible.

Keep it simple! No big electronic or computer-type words please. Thanks

John

My US cell phone worked fine in both places, where there was coverage. You have to have an "international" phone ie tri band or quad band, and you have to add international roaming to your plan. AT&T and Verizon have this, because those are my carriers.

You will pay int'l roaming charges, but if you have a blackberry etc. you can also receive emails and respond while you are away.

Hop over to your cell phone store and see if your phone will work internationally.

I don't know about renting there, I have a small memory of a call rental place in the Windhoek airport, and I think I am sure they have em in Jo-Burg- don't know about the Caprivi re coverage, but on my Tuli hunts I had pretty good cell reception.

Good Luck

I remember seeing signs for cell phone rentals at the airport in Windhoek.

Thanks guys, I've already checked with my local carrier (in Canada) and been told that the equipment is incompatible.

We used my wife's cell phone (Rogers) in Namibia a couple of years ago .. very expensive but worked fine. I have bought a couple of cell phones while over there for 6 weeks .. that worked out fine ... (until I lost one and ran out of minutes on the second .. stupidly I had bought that particular phone in South Africa .. Couldn't buy more minutes in little town of Kamanjab, Namibia..)

If your cell phone is not compatible, you might consider renting a Sat-phone. The rates are reasonable and the phones can be rented either in the states or from various African sources.

You can a buy a cheap cell phone in either Namibia or Botswana i.e $50, and buy 2 simcards one for Namibia and one for Botswana. Then its just a matter of buying enough airtime to last you for the duration of your trip. Which area in Botswana will you be hunting?

Rent a sat phone. Where we hunt in Namibia there is only very spotty cell phone coverage

Namibia uses the 900/1800 band. You can find a cell phone coverage map for it or any other country here http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml

There was no cell phone signal at the farm where we hunted (in 2007, at least) about three hours south of Windhoek, but I used my regular cell phone with international calling enabled (AT&T) to make several calls when in the Windhoek vicinity.

I called my wife's regular cell phone from Namibia and talked to her in Mexico where she was vacationing with the "girls" while the "guys" hunted in Africa. Pretty cool technology to an old farm boy like me. The charges were pricey by the minute, but the minutes talked were so few that the cost was negligible compared to buying or renting a local cell phone. Besides, there is nothing the local cell phone can do that your regular one can't (provided it is a four-band phone with international calling enabled), and you don't have to remember a temporary phone number.

I had no trouble getting cell phone coverage in the Caprivi of all places, but as someone said, it is expensive. When I got home I realized that it would have been cheaper per minute to use my Sat phone. Who knew?

Got a world phone blackberry rental through work plan for trip over this past June. Just activated it and used in place of my standard Bberry while I had it, with same #. Thought was that because data was free, I could e-mail and only use voice service when necessary. Problem is data service is not available everywhere. Worked well in Frankfurt and in Windhoek proper but once we were out of town = no data service. Voice service still worked fine with fair signal most areas. Cost me $52 total. Only made about 10 minutes worth of voice calls while in Namibia. We were abot 5 hrs. NW of Windhoek.