Mobile Data update

A short bit of information about mobile data, my favourite travel obsession in Africa. After having data access in Botswana (Orange), Zambia (Zain), Malawi (Zain), Tanzania (Zain), Kenya (Safaricom) and Uganda (MTN, expensive!) it was disappointing to find when we arrived in Moyale on the Ethiopian border that we couldn't buy a SIM card until we got to Addis Ababa. A whole week without Facebook, email or news feeds. How would I live? When we got to Addis one of the kind people at the Global Hotel procured a SIM card for me, which was just as well as even for a pre-paid card you need proof of local residence. Not easy for travellers, then. Credit was easy to get, as there is only one mobile phone company (Ethiopian Telecoms), but to my great disappointment there was no mobile data for pre-paid SIMs. Ever since Botswana I have been able to get email and other internet on my phone with just a pre-pay card, so it was a surprise that Ethiopia didn't have that service. I don't think it's to do with local demand, as even a very poor country like Malawi provided mobile data, it's just built into these modern mobile networks. Oh, well, so much for monopoly suppliers! The real bummer was that even in the places where there is nominally reception we couldn't make calls, because the power supplies for the mobile phone masts were down. Lalibela, where we spent a few days, and which is a mayor tourist attraction, had no mobile phone access while we were there, which was really hard for the local guides and other small business people, as everyone relies on contact through the mobile since no-one has a landline. Sudan on the other hand was a blessing. We still didn't get a SIM until we got to the Afra Mall in Khartoum, but there we found our old friend Zain, a Kuwaiti company covering 12 countries in Africa and the Middle East, who set me up with a pre-pay card and mobile internet (APN 'internet', no user name and password!). Sweet. I still needed to fill in an application form and show my passport, but I put that down to Sudanese love of bureaucracy and tracking what people are up to (until recently you needed photo permits to take pictures of the Northern pyramids and registration every time you stayed in a new town, very Soviet). Pre-paid mobile data is not cheap here - I have used €30 in 6 days, but that included ordering books on Amazon while driving through the desert, so I guess I am paying for the convenience. I have a SIM card for Egypt, but am not holding out much hope for data, as I know the Egyptian authorities are not too keen to have its people connected (iPhones sold in Egypt don't have GPS, for example). I will keep you posted.