Job Discussion Forums

[artemisia]

Can anyone who's travelled/ worked in Egypt relatively recently, tell me what the internet connection service is like there? I've heard in smaller places outside of Cairo the service is pretty poor- unstable and frequently breaks down. Is this true? Does it apply to internet cafes as well as universities/ private use?

[santi84]

Internet cafes are notoriously unreliable (even in the major sections of Cairo), but I find they often run at 1 pound per hour ($0.20 CDN/US?) so if the computer crashes, it's not such a huge deal!

[ITTP]

There are a few good ones (internet cafes) located on Talat Harb.
Generally I find the internet service good in central Cairo - MUCH cheaper, faster and reliable than in Sinai.

Neville

ITTP Prague
Jungmannova 32
Prague 1

[justcolleen]

I think you'll have better luck with the big cities (Alexandria, Cairo) than in the more rural areas. Internet cafes are cheap and plentiful. The connection varies between cafes and if a cable is cut under the ocean, which has happened twice in the past year, all you can do is wait until connectivity is restored.

[madhouseminx]

I live in Alex and use Etisalat USB internet. I pay 150LE a month. Skype doesn't always work great, but it is about 97% reliable. I've used it on the train, in Marsa Matrouh, Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Sinai. It works well except in VERY rural locations. Don't know what I would do without it!

[Hadit]

[madhouseminx]

I highly recommend it. It only costs 99LE to buy the USB device and get it set up. I pay 150LE a month for "unlimited" access which really means 6 gigs a month...but if you go over the 6 gigs, you won't get charged more...I've heard it just slows down to 1/2 speed.

I'm on the internet constantly and have never used all 6 gigs, but then, I don't download movies all day long.

I have a friend that has Vodafone and he just got a 6000LE bill for going over his 5gig allotment (he was downloading a lot of movies and wasn't thinking).

So stay away from Vodafone.

I use my USB in multiple computers and have let friends borrow it and it just installs automatically.

I'm in Ain Soukhna right now and it's working fine.
.
BUT- if you are travelling around to other countries and want to use it...they told me it would cost 1000LE to switch it over to roaming, plus 99LE per megabyte I think to use.

Good luck!

[nstick13]

As far as real internet:

TE Data and LinkDotNet are two of the major players. With my other two roommates we paid 225 LE/month ($40 or so?) total for 2mb/s (about 256KB/s download speed--not fast, really). In SK standard is 100mb/s. And, they all have "unlimited" up to a certain amount--which really isn't unlimited. We never went over, and downloaded movies, tv, etc all the time. There are some contract stipulations, both with broadband internet and the USB stuff, and with broadband you may need some of your landlord's paperwork.

Egypt just banned Skype over USB I heard. It's the phone companies that provide it, and they don't want you making calls when you could be paying them for minutes.

[madhouseminx]

[veiledsentiments]

I'm just guessing, of course, but they are probably doing the same thing as some of the Gulf countries... if Skype is already on your computer, you can use it. But, you can't download it. I have friends who had to have a reload of their hard drive and thus couldn't use Skype until they left the country and could re-load the program.

VS

[nstick13]

Egyptians often think they have brilliant ideas--especially major companies--and execution is damn near impossible, or falters along the way. It's why it took 4 trips to fix my toilet.

[johnslat]

Dear nstick13,

Well, the pyramids are pretty impressive. Of course, there hasn't exactly been an overabundance of brilliance since then.

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

Not quite true John, the ancients built equal monuments (and many better IMHO) for a couple thousand years... and then there are some fantastic structures right up through Medieval Islam. (I especially enjoyed finding blocks with hieroglyphs in the mosques... showing where they got much of their materials)

But... yes... nowadays getting home repairs done is a challenge. It impressed my landlord to no end when I repaired my own toilet.

VS

[justcolleen]

[veiledsentiments]

I don't know if it is still the same, but with the landlines in my flats in the late 80s... sometimes you could actually hear them... rather like getting an obscene phone call. Bizarre... also had my mail opened.

VS