Wondering what the availability of wireless internet or laptop connections are in East Africa. I will be spending a month in Jinja, Uganda, then traveling through Rwanda and Tanzania. Does anyone have some experiences with traveling with a laptop in these areas? Was it worthwhile to have one, or was it just a nuisance to have it?
Thanks for you help.
In my opinion the best thing is to take your laptop to an internet cafe and plug the cable in.
It depends where you are going:in centers like Kampala,Jinja, Kigali, Dar es salam, e.g in the main cities you can easily find Internet points, where you can have access to a PC by paying a moderate fee(inKampala it is about 3thousand Ug.shs. per hour = a bit less the 2 USD): taking a laptop with you is always risky because of many reasons like theft, damage,power problems and so on: it will be up to you to decide which will be the most convenient solution, depending on where and how you'll be travelling.
My personal suggestion would be not to carry the laptop along with you, unless it is a dire necessity .
Good luck and have a lovely trip in these beautiful countries that I have visited as well.
Luzern
09/27/08
Bourbon Coffee shops in Kigali have wifi hot spots that you can 'pay as you go'. Rwanda has wireless internet connection but I think you will need to buy an express card from the local network provider to access it (got mine from MTN), so probably not worth your while unless you can sell it on. Internet shops are plentiful, but connection can be slooooooow.
Some places (top hotels, restaurants) have some kind of hotspotty internet now, but very slow and huge fees. You wont find a place that offers at a speed of more than 50 kB/s.. If your goal is to send emails to mommy and daddy, forget about it and just go to an internet cafee. You'll survive.
In Rwanda, wireless is popular. In Kampala as well but less. In jinja...? Maybe 1 or 2 places have it, if at all and if it works...
ONLY if you absolutely NEED the laptop, bring along.
BETTER: take a blackberry or any other phone with 3G, which is widely available!
I decided to bring a laptop along, and have found it to be very useful. In Uganda, I was able to find places to plug in in Jinja, and Kampala. In Rwanda, there has been many hotels and coffee shops with Wifi.
The 3G Cell phone or Blackberry is certainly the most useful communication device though, as there is service all over the place!