Virgin Atlantic to allow cellphone calls during flights

British Airline Virgin Atlantic teamed up with AeroMobile, a GSM service provider for the aviation industry, to bring an in-flight cell phone service for voice calls to its new Airbus A330-300 aircrafts and refitted Boeing 747s. AeroMobile’s technology creates a small cell network on the plane, which routes calls from the aircraft through a satellite network that relays the calls to the ground. During flights, six passengers at a time will also be able to use the service for sending and receiving text messages, emails and web access via GPRS. As U.S. regulations forbid cell phone usage on commercial flights, the service won’t be available on flights to New York or other destinations in the US Virgin Atlantic is operating flights to.
Initially, the service will only be available for customers of European cell phone providers O2 and Vodafone. International roaming costs will apply during fights.

Vodacom launches low flat rates for Africa roaming

Good news for travellers in Southern and Eastern Africa. Vodacom South Africa recently announced that all customers, both contract and prepaid, can now expect huge roaming savings when travelling to 6 African countries where Vodacom and Vodafone operate. These countries include the DR Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Once international roaming has been activated, you will automatically qualify for these rates. All Vodacom customers are now automatically charged at the reduced international roaming rates when roaming on the Vodacom Lesotho, Vodacom Mozambique, Vodacom Tanzania, Vodacom DR Congo networks, Vodafone Ghana and Kenya Safaricom networks. To ensure you are always roaming on the network, change the network settings from "automatic" to "manual" on your device when you arrive at your destination, and choose the qualifying network from the list.

Data (Data roaming is only available to Contract customers and charged in 10KB increments)   

• R5/MB

Voice (Voice calls are charged on a per minute basis)

• Free incoming calls
• Local Voice call - R2.90
• Call back to South Africa or an International call - R5.00

SMS   

• Local and international SMS messages - R1.50 per SMS
• Free incoming SMS messages

Cape Town train times on your mobile

Mobile services firm Grapevine Interactive has launched a free-of-charge mobile internet site for Cape Town metro train users of the Southern and Northern lines.
On www.cttrains.mobi anyone with a WAP-capable cell phone has access to the standard daily train schedules for the Southern line Cape Town <> Simonstown, and the Northern line Cape Town <> Bellville.
The schedules work in either direction, include all stations in-between and take into account week days, weekends and public holidays. Special train times are not included.

Comair to allow cellphone use during flights

The South African Civil Aviation Authority has given Comair the permission to let passengers use their cell phones ( in "flight mode" or "airplane mode", no phone calls will be allowed) during flights but not during take off. Comair, operator of British Airways in South Africa and kulula.com, told the media that it would allow the use of mobile phones on its flights on a trial basis for the time being.
South Africa's flag carrier South African Airways has also applied to the country's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to lift the ban on cellphone use during flights. (via eyewitnessnews.co.za)

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South African Airways applies to allow cell phones in "flight mode" during flights

South Africa's flag carrier South African Airways has applied to the country's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to lift the ban on cellphone use during flights. In case the CAA scraps the in-flight ban, passengers will be allowed to use their phones in "flight mode" or "airplane mode", but will not be allowed to make actual phone calls during the flight.
A CAA spokesperson was quoted saying that the CAA received the airline’s programme in early April 2011 and that the Authority is currently reviewing it. As soon as the review is complete, SAA will be able to start the testing phase to investigate which cellphone models can be used in-flight.
Comair, operator of British Airways and kulula.com flights in South Africa, will also apply for the same exemption, if South African Airways is successful.

Mozambique: Mobile phone users must register by 15 Nov 2010

According to an article on allafrica.com all users of pre-paid mobile phone cards in Mozambique must register their phone numbers by 15 November 2010. The news source is referring to a government decree which was issued last week, but has not yet been published in any of the media.
According to the decree all new users of pre-paid mobile phone cards in Mozambique must be registered at the moment they buy it. People who already have numbers will have to register them by 15 Nov 2010 (similar to the Rica Act in South Africa). If they fail to do so, their access to the mobile phone networks will be blocked. Registration has not yet started. Sometime in the next few days the authorities and the two companies (Mcel & Vodacom MZ) will announce the registration procedures to be used.

Cell phones in South Africa - frequency, SIMcards, phones etc.

South Africa has an extensive GSM network, working on the same frequency (operating on GSM 900 & GSM 1800) as the rest of Africa and Europe. Cellphones working on GSM 850 or GSM 1900 (frequencies used in the US) are not working in South Africa (as well as in all neighboring countries). The South African networks support GPRS countrywide; 3G, EDGE and HSDPA support is available in larger urban areas.

South Africa has four five cell phone providers:

• Vodacom
• MTN
• Cell C
• Virgin Mobile
• 8.ta (Telkom) UPDATE (15 Oct 2010)

Prepaid SIMCards: A South African SIMCard will require a SIM-unlocked GSM cell phone that supports the 900 frequency. SIMcards are available in almost all shops & malls and cost you between R1 to R3. This in not includung preloaded airtime obviously. So called "recharge vouchers" are available in almost all shops (checkout counter) as well. If your phone is not working on the South African GSM frequency, you can easily buy a cheap one in the shops. See the websites of the four providers for current rates. You should get a phone for around R300. As of 01 July 2009 all SIMcards in South Africa require to be registered. Click here to read what to do.

International calls: Calling overseas from your South African simcard will cost you a fortune. Rather make use of skype - it will safe you a lot!

South Africa: All SIMcards required to be registered. How to register a SIMcard as a tourist?

As from today, 01 July 2009, all SIM cards in South Africa require to be registered. Reason is the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Act (Rica) which "aims to help law enforcement agencies investigate and combat serious crime" (Justice Minister Jeff Radebe).
Therefore all cellphone service providers need to capture the customer’s cell number, full names, identity number and address (and verify the information) before they can activate a new SIM card.

Residents in South Africa need to present:

• Proof of identity: barcoded ID document, an ID card, temporary ID certificate, or passport

• Proof of physical address: any document that included one’s name and residential address, such as a bank statement, municipal rates, cellphone or retail account not older than 3 months, existing lease, rental or credit agreement, insurance policy, current TV or motor vehicle licence.

But what about tourist coming to South Africa?
Well, we at TravelComments.com contacted Vodacom & got the following answer:
Visitors to South Africa, who use their own home network's SIM card, such as Vodafone UK, Vodafone Australia, are not required to register these SIM cards.
However, when a visitor to South Africa opt to use a Vodacom Prepaid SIM card whilst travelling in South Africa they will be required to register this SIM card with Vodacom to have the SIM card activated on the network.
For the registration at a RICA agents, visitors will be required to provide the following information:

• cellphone number,
• last four digits on the SIM card,
• full name/surname (passport document), and
• an address where they will be staying during their visit.

There are no documents to be purchased - registration will be handled by any RICA agents, across all distribution channels in South Africa.