Getting a phone..

Posted 12/31/08

I just logged onto facebook and saw that another one of the girls that I will be traveling with just got an international cell phone number.

After clicking around, I stumbled upon this link about buying cellphones for foreign countries. Hm.. Should I get a phone before I leave? Seems like it would be a good idea, but then again, do I want to be tied to a phone like I am in the states? I'm not sure.

Due to time constraints, I might just pass on the phone. I hear there are computers and internet cafes everywhere, that should be enough to stay in touch right?

UPDATE 10/13/09

You pretty much need a phone. Well, I guess you don't need one, but it makes coordinating hang-out efforts with friends, calling your Ghana EAP advisers about classes, events, and trips, and most importantly- keeping in touch with people at home!

Also, don't buy a phone in the U.S. There are so many places to buy phones in Ghana, and they are all so much cheaper!!!

ex. buy an old school Nokia (the one where you can play snake!!!) for 40 Ghana cedi. (1 USD = 1.3ish Ghana Cedi)

How to get a cellphone:

1. The EAP office will help you get one if you would like. When I got mine with the Spring 2008 group, the student counselors collected 38 Ghana cedi from each person and bought it for us in bulk. If not, just go to the market, walk up to any stand, and start bargaining. :) Start 1/4 of what you want to pay, and work up from there.

2. Buy a sim card anywhere. They are, on average, between 1 and 1.50 cedi each. There are a couple different companies.

a. Vodaphone: When I was there, vodaphone had the best service in Volta Hall (the all girls hall) and pretty much anywhere on campus.

b. MTN: MTN has the best advertising campaign, but it kept dropping calls for some people living in ISH (international student hostel). It was also difficult to reach friends during peak hours. Andddd MTN has this crazy thing where you get discounts at certain places, during certain times of the day. Thus, a call could be 90% off the regular price per minute, or 10% off a minute later one foot away.

c. Tigo: Tigo.. never used it. But my roommate had it and never had any complaints.

d. Zain: Zain come out mid trip, so a lot of people already had dedicated service providers by this time.

3. Buy phone credit! A lot of people sell credit all over the place. Buy in 1, 5, or 10 cedi increments and call to your hearts desire! :) I always bought in 5 cedi increments.

I spent about 30 - 40 cedi a month on phone credit, but that was because I called my boyfriend and grandma (in the US) quite often. You can receive calls for free, even international calls, so your parents can keep in touch with you at no cost to you. However, if my calculations were correct, it is cheaper to call form a cellphone in Ghana to the US (about 5 cents/min) than it is to call from the US to Ghana (about 10 cents/min).

The only thing that sucks about phone credit is... for each cedi someone sells, that person makes 25 p. (about 20 cents). It's really sad because some people live off this money. These large telecommunication corporations come in and create a market, and make huge profits off these people.

In fact, recently, Vodaphone bought out Ghana telecom, and thus, owns all of Ghana's phone lines. The pro: maybe landlines will actually work now? Con: Ghana does not have any publicly owned telecom service, or any private ventures either. Everything is foreign...