communications

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COMMUNICATIONS

Telephones
Mobile Phones (and should you bring one?)
To call a land line
To call a mobile
Internet (and should you bring a computer?)

Kenya phone system

Kenya has a fair telephone system and it is quite possible to call in and out of Kenya as well as within Kenya. Telekom has a monopoly on the land line system. A company or organization doing business in Kenya may have multiple phone lines so that when one or several of the lines are down, they still have others to fall back on. Years of low preventative maintenance has taken a toll on the system. Mobile phones are usually more reliable.

Cheaper international calling cards are available that utilize voice over Internet calling. Most Internet cafes offer cheaper Internet calling as well. These are typically charged at Ksh10 to Ksh20 per minute. Calling over Telekom with direct dial will run about 5 times that amount.

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are very common here. There are two mobile phone service providers: Celtel and Safaricom. Within the SIMPact group we use Safaricom, but in some of the remote places Celtel may work better. The Kenya providers both use GSM based mobile phones (common outside of North America).

We feel that it is important for you to have a mobile for security reasons, so you will need to bring one or buy one here. If you have one, you may want to bring it. However, theft is a problem, so if it is an expensive phone, you may want to buy a cheaper phone here in Kenya.

Your GSM should be able to take a SIM card (has nothing to do with our mission!), which you can purchase here and the phone should not be locked in with a particular provider in your home country that you may be under contract with.

We have some phones that you can rent for $5/month. Purchasing mobiles here is about $50 for a basic unit. You will need to also buy air time via scratch cards that are available almost everywhere.

A couple of links* to sights with more information about GSM:
GSM World (from the GSM Association)
Travel Insider (North America perspective)
*Notice: We are not responsible for the content of outside sites.

To call into Kenya to a land line phone:

enter the international access code for the country that you are calling from,
enter 254 for Kenya
enter the city code in Kenya (Nairobi is 20)
enter the phone number in Kenya

To call into Kenya to a mobile phone:

enter the international access code for the country that you are calling from,
enter 254 for Kenya
enter the mobile phone number in Kenya (it will begin with a 72 or a 73 and then 8 more digits (don't enter the leading 0)

Internet and computers

The SIMPact program has Internet access on the Rose Ave compound, which is where all Nairobi based SIMPacters live. It is also available to non-Nairobi SIMPacters when they are in Nairobi. Two somewhat vintage computers are available on a first come first serve bases and there is a usage fee. Currently, a monthly fee of Ksh1,000 is charged for each user. A per minute fee of Ksh2 will be used for those who use the computers only a bit.

Internet cafes are located all across Kenya in any town of size. Their prices range from Ksh1 or even Ksh.5 up to Ksh4 or more per minute. You may want to bring your notebook computer if you expect to use it in your ministry or rely heavily on it for other needs. The Internet access at Rose Ave is wireless, so try to bring a WIFI adapter with if your computer is not already equipped with wireless. However, if you don't expect to have special needs for a computer, you may want to leave it at home.