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That is a very safe assumption yes.

The easiest option actually is to grab any SIMlock free phone, triband or better, and buy a simcard in SA.
You will need to have an address or reservation at a hotel. (The camps in Kruger is not good enough in most cases.)

I didn't need an address via Cellucity. I just filled in a reservation form and picked up a phone, sim, and USB dongle.

It might, you just need to check with the provider. But I would err on the side of caution.

Have a look here for info about hiring mobile phones from O R Tambo.

I aways use this and the system works very well. So far I bought all my "cards" at Satara and made phone calls from most of the main camps. If I am correct the minimum amount for a card is zar 50,-. I am always surprised how cheap it is to make a phone call to Holland (wild guess: 1 minute = appr. 1 zar).

Hi,

I was in KNP last month and all the park below Skukuza have a good 3G reception, from Satara to Mopani only Edgge (2G) reception, this is too low for Skype but ok for e-mails, Internet and Kruger Sightings apps

A few thoughts on our recent experience.

We rented a dongle and 2gig of data, plus a basic phone, at OR Tambo. We could get signal at most camps, although nothing fast and nothing completely stable. It was enough to check and send emails, update facebook, etc.

My suggestion for people is to bookmark the low-bandwidth or mobile versions of the websites you need to access. This speeds up the load time and decreases the data usage. After 19 days in SA, we had more than enough data leftover.

Hello KNP forum -

We're planning our first trip to KNP for late September/early October, flying from the USA to Johannesburg and then driving up the next day. We have our lodging in the park all arranged at various camps and are really excited for the trip. This forum has really helped out with our planning.

Despite my best efforts, I can't find the answer to this question: How do we get connectivity for our iPad? We'd like to check email etc. We are just bringing the iPad and not a laptop. I've read about dongles for laptops via vodacom bought at the airport, but since we don't have a USB connection on the iPad, that won't work. I will also have an unlocked iPhone 4S along.

If anyone could give us help with this, I'd appreciate it! You guys seem to solve any issue so I am really hopeful!

Hi bustergirl and welcome to the forums,
Several years ago I bought an unlocked MiFihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiFi and no matter where we travel in the world we can find a cell shop and buy a data card for it, it converts a cell phone data plan into a WiFi signal that any device can connect to, so it will work wherever you can get cell coverage (which is most Kruger camps) we would never travel without it. We travel to Kruger pretty much once a year and buy a data plan from the cell shop in Johannesburg airport (cheaper than a data plan in North America )
I also know that if you have an unlocked iPhone 4 it can do pretty much the same thing, the key is that these things MUST be unlocked so they can work on any cell phone providers network.

Hi Bustergirl,

Last month I was in KNP and I bought a vodacom SIM at the airport with only data volume (750MB) for R390,
two hours after inserting the card in my unlocked iphone I was able to share the connection 3g with my IPAD

There is a 3G network in and aroud the main camp in the south part of the park, but north of skukuza only Edge network but it's ok to read e-mail, browse internet and use KNP Sighting apps.

3G is ok to call with skype.

Have a nice trip

Hi Buster Girl

I trust you dont have a 3g ipad. Your best bet would be to get a mifi device. I would advise sticking to the Vodacom and MTN networks, Cell C and 8ta maybe slightly cheaper but have no 3g coverage in KNP. Vodacom also have the best mifi device IMO. A mifi device uses a sim card to work as a wifi network allowing your Ipad to connect to it.

If you have a 3g ipad you could just buy a vodacom microsim. Creating a personal hotspot with your iphone is a possible solution but it does drain the battery of the iphone really quickly

I hope you have an awesome trip

Yes, definitely there's quite good 3G coverage at Skukuza, and most other camps have 2G (Edge) but that is perfectly ok for emails and simple surfing. It probably won't upload photos to Flickr/Photobucket etc, but you will at least stay connected to friends and family.

Hope you have a wonderful trip. Don't forget your Yellow Ribbon.

Hi

I think this might help too!

The black area is the cell phone coverage, for Edge and 3G.

Vodacom Coverage



MTN Coverage


Cell C Coverage



I think Cell C has the best coverage by far, compared to the others.


I hope this helps!

I'm surprised to hear that Ossie............I have never failed to connect with my Vodacom Dongle (even in the Northern Camps)
I have however heard of people complaining that Cell C coverage is not good.

Having said that, maybe they have recently improved their coverage?

This is what they claim to have.
But yet again there is bad weather, the type of phone and sometimes they upgrade the towers.
All of these can change the factors of the signal strength.

So According to what it should be Cell C is number 1.

When I take my iPhone on holiday vodacom seems to do the job well.

But I do hear that MTN is by far the worst of them all.

Although I am not from over the seas I use my Iphone as a hotspot.

So you can just buy a simcard, load airtime or a data bundle on it and violla! You are ready to go.

MTN is BAD!! According to me...I have 2 mtn phones and then the Vodacom iphone, and have never experienced difficulty to connect with the vodacom. But MTN... Right next to the VC I get NOTHING!!

Havent used CC so cant comment on that, but if it were me to choose it would be the Big Red and not the Yellow.