On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:37:12 GMT, Liz
wrote:

How extensive is the cellphone coverage in Kenya?

Liz,

major cities are covered, and coverage reaches out into the
countryside now quite a bit. A few examples:

Marigat is covered. In Baringo I got a connection in some very
few places, like standing in a particular corner of a metal wall
or standing on top of a water tank.

Isiolo and even Archer's Post is covered. In Samburu I got good
reception some way up a hill, but none down at the river or in
the lodge.

Amboseli was not yet covered last year.

In Maasai Mara many lodges have a transmitter that is throttled
down to yield only a 1 to 2 km range around the lodge, a
particularly stupid setup in my view. So you have good reception
inside and near the lodge, but no reception when you're 2 or 3
km away from the lodge.

I don't know how they technically do the throttling. Perhaps
they simply reduce the power of the transmitter. Anyway, they
are wasting lots of money by putting a transmitter in each
lodge, rather than having just one covering the whole of Maasai
Mara.

I guess that northern Kenya is not covered at all, but I'm not
sure about bigger towns like Lodwar. Does anybody know?

As to travelling in Kenya on your own, let me repeat my opinion.
I think it can be done, but a few conditions should be met. The
person or persons should have some experience with travelling
and driving in developing countries. They should have a
satellite phone or at least a mobile phone, a GPS with a map or
at least a waypoint collection loaded, and at least one good
paper map. They should be able to use the GPS properly. And they
should gather important information before travelling,
particularly everything needed to manage the risks.

And they should carry a printed copy of
http://www.michna.com/kenya.htm (:-)

Hans-Georg

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