Gents,
I'm evaluating my options for keeping in touch with home while I'm in South Africa this fall. I'm not looking to spend all day tied to my cell phone, but I would like to be able to make daily calls home in the evening to check in on the wife and baby (more importantly the baby, but don't tell my wife I said that....).
I'll be hunting outside of Hoedspruit, and it looks like AT&T has international coverage in the area, with rates of $40-120 for the month depending on how much data I want with the package (200, 400, 800MB). Voice calls are still $0.25-0.15/min depending on the level of package, but I'm assuming I'll just text home and maybe use FaceTime to see the baby.
Anyone have any thoughts for or against this? I'm planning to swing by AT&T to see if they have any knowledge of this, but I'm not overly hopeful they'll have much knowledge of international plans and what I need for data.

Thanks in advance.

When you get out of customs at JNB turn right and you will hit a MTN cell store. Grab a SIM card with data and use Whatsapp to call. SA has cell service pretty much everywhere. $40 USD will purchase enough data to last your trip as long as you are not burning a lot of data.

Well that certainly sounds like a better option.

Thank you, Opus.

If the camp has wifi, you don't need to spend a dime and just use WhatsApp and FaceTime.

quote:

Originally posted by DCS Member:
If the camp has wifi, you don't need to spend a dime and just use WhatsApp and FaceTime.

Marcus is spot on, we were in that area a week ago and cell service was spotty at best.

I also recommend What'sApp. Can be used for voice calls or for texting. It usually works very well.

100% WhatsApp. Cheap and the call quality is great. I call Africa using it exclusively now.

Mark

Curious, what is to commend WhatsApp over Skype?

WhatsApp is the ticket

Mike,

The call quality is crystal clear and very consistent with WhatsApp. You use it off your phone just like making a regular call. Skype for me often had garbled speech from the person I was talking to and might just cutout in the middle of a discussion. I've had none of that with WhatsApp.

Mark

Is the person you are trying to contact also required to have WhatsApp?

.

100 % airport MTN store and SIM card. They open from 06.00 and get 5 x R 80,- prepaid credit tickets, load two on voice and two on data and you are good to go.

I would guess that the farm has wifi and then you are home free !

Cheers

.

quote:

Originally posted by Heeler75:
Is the person you are trying to contact also required to have WhatsApp?

Yes

Download from Google Play or that IPhone thingy place...

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Curious, what is to commend WhatsApp over Skype?

Mike,

I also think you will find that WhatsApp is used by so many people worldwide. In fact, it is used as the main way to text in places like Argentina because of the excessive data network charges and wide availability of wifi.

With Skype I can also call non-Skype members on a land or mobile line for next to nothing. So you can Skype members or just call non-Skype members. I run $10 of credit on Skype for calls and it lasts an eternity. Not trying to pitch Skype over WhatsApp just wondered if WhatsApp had material functionality over Skype.

As best I can tell, you are exactly right, Mike. Skype non wifi calls are dirt cheap and $10-15 lasts forever. I have both on my phone and if I have a solid wifi connection I use WhatsApp. Everywhere else it's Skype.

With T-mobile, your calls over Wi-Fi are free back to the USA and the other person does not need WhatApp, Skype or FaceTime. Non Wi-Fi are .20 per minute, free texts, and free 2G data.

I hate technology, I really do. One of the big attractions to safaris was that noone could find me. That was true for years. My firm tried to get me to carry a sat phone. I refused. There was no wifi in camp.
Now there is. I don't like it. I only let one of my partners know that. Otherwise, I'll bill 60 hours a week while I'm on vacation.

If it is important to you I believe that WhatsApp is encrypted,

Much to the chagrin of big brother....

WhatsApp is the way to go. If you do decide to use your phone I recommend a local sim card.

Mike, WhatsApp is the ticket, on the IPhone it is pretty much seamless, plus the chat function works great for sending photo's and keeping in touch with those oversea's , not using your phone line. Give it a try, people that have it loaded will pop up on your phone and your ready to go. If someone doesn't have it loaded, you can text them to get it and your off. It worked very well for me to do business while I was in Africa last year.