Celtel Baby!

Life changing?

2008-07-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hello world( or at least those of you who know I exist ). I'm back again after a sort of short absence. I have had a bit of a thinking weekend (It was too damn COLD to do anything else) and I have come to the realisation that I an pretty damn lucky! And that i should stop whining about this
How many people do i know who own a 3.5g phone, a 3g modem, and a core2duo laptop with about 1500 usd in the bank?
I have decided to to adopt a whole new approach to life. You know grab life by the balls. Wish of luck. Till later them people. Viva la revolucion!

a butterfly flutters but not popote

2008-07-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

So today, in the spirit of competition I went to check out the other offering of internet that other providers had, my targets for today.. popote wireless and KDN's butterfly . It helped that both of then are located a stones throw away from celtel HQ. where I had business today.
First of Butterfly. Whaaat! the service is a Wi-Fi hot-spot thing. ohmigosh I am so embarrased, it doesn't qualify for this blog so this is the last you will read of it in this here blog.
Next, popote, yeah the service is CDMA, but hey wont just give me setting they even insist that my new( and fully functional ) data-card won't work with It. Damn!
Any-way price-wise, their deal is not too bad 4016/- for a months unlimited surfing. not quite bad, until you realize that Celtel's deal goes for 1000/- less and they do have coveragewhere I live @. ooh did I forget to mention, they do not have network coverage in my area and nor do they have any plans of providing such.
Have they never heard of the Equity/Bamba 20 Effect? No wonder they are loosing business. any way enoght from me for the day. read me tomorrow!

Viva la Revolucion!

FlashCom?

2008-07-02T04:02:00.001-07:00

Today I went out and bought myself a Flashcom line( nice to be rich, isn't it? ). the bloody thing cost me 200/- ( well... technically i bought 200 worth of credit and they gave me a free ruim card) but am still not exactly happy. they do have some half decent deals but you have to be a prew-paid subscriber and you do have to pay a 5000/- deposit( I know, i know it's refundable ).
Anyway I just wanted the ability to surf with as many providers as possible( 4 and counting )
so next up I am going after yello, popote wireless and kdn's butterfly and when eco-net and orang roll out later in the year, we'll be waiting...

I am now starting a blog on which of this providers providesa the best product and it starts tonight with a very simple comparison of data rates( theoretical ) and prices. to be soon followed up by real-life data rates at different times to guage the overall surfing experience.

till next time..
Viva la revolucion!

viva la Telkom

2008-07-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hey hey!
Yeah, I am typing this up and posting it using my new Telkom Line. and I thought that celtel was the only shiz-nit!
Yeah I wen't out and got myself a telkom wireless desktop set with the ability to surf for only 3300/- (that's about $50 for all you dollar-heads).
The desktop set works great but is kinda costly to work on ( 3/- per min about $0.05 ) and this is kinda expensive but the nice speed does kinda help ease the pain. i was able to download ajax tutorials like nothin!
The celtel set costs me 10/- per MB (about $0.15 per MB). any-body who thinks that they arean authority on this please get back t me and let me know which one is better.
Currently I currently using both connected to computer at the same time but only using the telkom line for kinda sizeable downloads and using the celtel on for text-based surfing. as you can guess i only use safaricom and their 3Gwhen all my other options are down.

Till the next episode. goodbye and goodnight ( apparently some famous person said that, don't ask me who )

2008-06-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

Hello again( getting tiring isn't it ).
Update on my celtel story.

I still haven't contacted them about the charger( yeah, i'm that lazy )
But on the bright side I have just gotten myself a telkom wireless line. If all goes extremely well, I should be able to use my data-card to surf with said line.

Anyway Safaricom 3G is crap! same sped as edge on my 3.5G phone, so guess what despite a 3G data-crd am sticking to celtels EDGE and Telkoms EVDO.
Baadaye!

Viva la Revolucion

net for the masses( i think)

2008-06-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, so now a am in the cyber-cafe, suxxx that i am in the cyber cafe when i got a 3G phone AND datacard but .... I need net and my bevices dont work.
By the way, Nairobi is now supposed to be one giant hotspot courtesy of our benevolent dictator, oops, monopoly, safaricom. wish i could get me some of that, you see I live in the city but the 3G coverage stops just about 4 Km's from where I live @ so i cannot take advantage of this safcom 3G
(actually good for them coz the weight of ma downloads would have brought down their system anyway.... sour grapes)
Anyway it just goes to show how we in africa can still get the best that technology has to offer. I am a techie so I love the idea of 3G but both safcom and celtel have been on EDGE for a while now and most people still cant take advantage of this, i smell a marketting rat
Only rich folks are interested in 3G hence nice revenue( plus it is so fast you dont realise till your 5000/- bob credit runs out in the middle of the latest Kanye-West video download). Theoretically they charge the same for EDGE services hence same revenue but they cant milk it quite as much.
People the best way we got of taking the web to the masses is through EDGE, but even my preffered carrier, celtel with their great network, sem to be playing down the capabilities of EDGE. it is slow, but it is everywhere, and if web-designers( me ) were to code for low bandwidth( remeber that class? ) we would be really able to help out those guys without much aceess to the internet who dont know that their fone are GPRS/EDGE enabled.

enough of my rambling. and someone, PLEASE read my blog!

In the Salon

2008-06-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Guess what, Now am in the salon, (Expression in nax), some guyz from school are creating a magazine and guess what? we will be on the very first edition. hah!
Anyway its been quite an experience, i mean they put make-up on me back in Kampala( during the shooting of the episodes ) but having it done with so much detail, this time for a magazine article is a whole different story.
My face got scrubbed like never before and its wierd but yeah! i feel pretty right now.
I will get back to the blog soon, they are calling us into the studio right now for our photo-shoot. bye!

P.S am still pissed about lack of a charger but things don't look so bad after a few days.
Hey Az, thanxx for use of your laptop and datacard.

Still pissed!

2008-06-14T23:51:00.001-07:00

They gave a laptop but the charger doesn't work, what the? anyway i have just managed to get online with the comp(like right now). on top of that i just found out that the datacard has issues. what am i gonna do now. any way my coffe and code filled nights will have to wait i guess.

2008-06-14T02:48:00.000-07:00

What the? They gave me a faulty laptop!

Reality

2008-06-12T02:50:00.001-07:00

Let me explain why i started the clog yesterday. I am a recent participant in an africa-wide trivia competition called the Celtel Africa Challenge. We (read Egerton emerged champions. As a result we were 2 to get a laptop computer, a mobile phone. And other prizes adding up 2 USD1500. We finally got them yesterday. Thats where my blog started.

Finally got our prizes

2008-06-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today we finally got them! our laptops and fones and am looking forward to days and nights of endless coding and coffee (black no sugar)