Destinations

Phones & More Phones

In Botswana (and most of Southern Africa), most phone calls are pre-paid. You purchase phone calling cards, such as 5 Pula cards or 60 Pula cards. When you purchase calling cards, you just need to make sure they work on the phone service intended. There are calling cards for pay phones (BTC or Botswana Telecom), and the cellular services (Mascom and Orange).

Landline phones

Landlines are less common in Botswana than in the United States, particularly in rural regions of the country. If you plan to visit the Okavango Delta, realize you will have zero phone access. However, near most post offices there are telephone kiosks where you can place outgoing calls. You first purchase a phone card, and then follow the card instructions for placing a call.

Outside busy areas, such as hospitals and shopping areas, you often will see tables setup with phones on them. Clerks will sell you phone time on these phone lines - it's more informal (and usually quite pricey) than the official payphones, but can work in a pinch.

Cellular phones

On the other hand, cellular phones are a little less expensive and the service is excellent. There are two main cell phone providers in Botswana: Orange and Mascom. Both are reputable companies.

When you arrive in Gaborone, you can go to one of the shopping areas and easily purchase a SIM card and minutes for your telephone. You will be up & running with a working phone in under an hour.

What type of cellular service exists in Southern Africa?

The cellular service in Southern Africa is based on the GSM network. GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the main system used throughout Europe and Africa. GSM is also stretching into the USA because of the many enhanced storiess available on GSM networks. AT&T's newest cellular service, T•Mobile, and Cingular Wireless use GSM service. The practical aspect of GSM is that your telephone is activated through the insertion of a SIM card. The SIM card is a small digital card with computer chips that gives the phone its user identity. People who travel throughout Africa and Europe can keep several active SIM cards - a phone number for each country.

Telephones in the USA that use SIM cards are locked, so that only one identity can be activated on the phone. Make sure to either ask your telephone provider to unlock your phone for overseas travel (T-Mobile will unlock your cell phone, for instance, as a courtesy service), or else purchase an unlocked one. Although the phone would be identical to those used in Botswana, inserting a Mascom or Orange SIM card will not work. On the other hand, you can purchase Unlocked cellular telephones (the ones I purchased via eBay were from Turkey!). You can then activate them on US-based GSM services, as well as throughout Europe and Africa.

Here's the process:

• Purchase an unlocked cellular phone (either in the USA through a dealer who sells them/eBay ... for instance 123Digital.com (I'm not recommending a company, just showing an example)
• Once you arrive in Botswana, get a SIM card and telephone minutes from a Mascom or Orange booth
• Insert SIM card. Follow the instructions on the site to load up your minutes. In ten minutes you'll be up & running.

By the way, it is much less expensive to send messages via SMS (10 thebe per message, rather than a minimum of 1 Pula per call) than making actual phone calls, so I highly recommend you practice your SMS keyboarding skills.

Calling Africa from the USA

If you telephone people in Africa (or send them faxes) on your own dime, it is much less expensive to use prepaid phone cards. Select special ones with low rates to Africa (I personally use one called "Hello Africa"). You'll find these cards at stores often frequented by recent immigrants to the US. With prepaid phone cards, calls vary from 10 cents to 25 cents a minute. (If you make one long call on these cards, you can talk for 2 hours on a $10 card.). One caveat: read the terms carefully. For instance, placing a call from a cell phone or pay phone may hike the per-minute rate to a few dollars a minute.

Phone Directory

By the way, the phone directory for Botswana (land lines) is online, including the business yellow pages. It can be handy to gather many phone numbers and addresses for important places (grocery stores, laundromats, taxis, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.) before you go.

Identifying Phone Numbers

The country code for Botswana is 267. There are no specific area codes.

• A typical landline phone number is 7 digits.
• Cellular phones are have 8 digits - with each number beginning with a 7 (e.g. 7128 2798).

Six digit numbers expired

In 2003 , Botswana Telecom switched all the phone numbers from six digits to seven. Hence, many guidebooks to Botswana have out-dated phone numbers.

Review the phone directory to get up-dated phone numbers.