El Andalous - Internet Options

El Andalous Beach with New Sunscreens

The first thing I did when I arrived here was to go to Senzo Mall to get a dongle. I can’t live without an internet connection (although – hello Alastair – I have many friends who knew me before the internet even existed; hardly seems possible now!). Here, a dongle costs only 125 LE and then you pay each month according to how much usage you need per month. When I was working here from my flat, I used up 15 GB or more a month; now I can just about make do with 7 or 8 GB a month if the only TV I watch via the internet are my weekly soaps (approx. 5 hours low definition per week).

Anyway, I started off with a Vodafone dongle. It generally worked OK – sometimes the connection meandered a bit or would go off altogether and I’d run round my flat and balcony like a headless chicken, raising my computer up and down as I went, shouting “work, work, work!” until I could find somewhere where it would connect properly. I probably looked a bit mad. This (the dodgy connection, not my madness!) is what made teleconferences difficult when I was working.

More recently, I’ve swapped over to Etisalat. They have a really funky modem, about the size of a mobile phone. It costs 400 LE, but it enables you to have a wireless connection. Therefore you can connect several devices all at once. Moreover, because the modem is so small, you can just take it with you wherever you go and it will work anywhere in Egypt (or even just down at the beach). Pretty cool, huh?

The disadvantage is that the internet package is a bit bizarre (this is Egypt). My current monthly package is for 8 GB, costs 90 LE (so 10 LE cheaper than Vodafone for 7 GB) at the time of writing, but you have to use 4 GB between 2am and 2pm. This is a bit of a nuisance because my heavy usage, and my TV enjoyment in particular, is in the evening. An advantage of Etisalat over Vodafone, though, is that you can renew your monthly premium via a cash machine, which saves me a trip (and taxi fare) to Senzo Mall.

I’ve been adapting to the Bizarre Package (actually, its official name is Mongez Double Bundle – that’s marketeers for you) and have occasionally watched Coronation Street as the repeat on the following morning to balance out my consumption better. However, psychologically, it’s making me want to use the internet in the morning every single moment until 2pm. This is fine for doing my shares, but it disrupts my usual time for learning Egyptian Arabic; I find myself surfing and avoiding my studies just for the sake of using up my allowance. I know this is ridiculous, but I can’t seem to stop myself.

The connection is OK – a bit like Vodafone, sometimes it is fast and at other times I have to move the modem around the flat a bit (but at least I don’t have to move my laptop with it) to get the best connection. I tried using my tablet on the beach, but the screen is reflective and I found it impossible to read anything on the screen due to the glare. Such are the problems when you’re lying in the sun!

There is a third option looming on the horizon, which is to get another, rather large modem, which takes a dongle but then allows you wireless access and the range extends as far as the beach. I believe there’s also some other gizmo that increases its reach even further, but I need to learn more about that first. With this, I could get my 8 GB usage at any time for 100 LE per month, which would be psychologically a lot less stressful and worth an extra 10 LE! Admittedly, and as I commented to Kathryn, on the grander scale of things, it is completely ridiculous to describe my Bizarre Package as a source of “stress”. Everything is relative, I guess. A couple of people here are trying out this alternative with the large modem, so I’m waiting to see how they get on!