Wireless broadband cheaper than hotel Wi-Fi rates

Nairobi:  At the equivalent of $20 a day, Internet access at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi is actually pretty inexpensive as International hotels go.  A few weeks ago I paid $25 a day for access at the Grant Hyatt in Berlin.  Last year I paid $35 to use the Internet from a hotel in Istanbul.

But this time I got smart. Instead of using the hotel’s service, I took a taxi into town and stopped at an Orange Mobile shop to purchase a USB wireless broadband modem for my laptop.  Modems started at $20 but I bought their highest speed version for $35 which came with 500 MB of free data. I then purchased additional data which should come to about $5 to $6 a gigabyte. I’m not sure how much data I’ll use during my 10 days in Kenya, but I’m quite sure my total cost will be under $60 compared to the $200 I’d spend at the hotel.

In addition to being cheaper, the service is also faster based on an conversation I had with person who did purchase hotel service. Speedtest.net measured both download speed at between 2 and 4 Mbps which is quite respectable for a mobile connection in a developing country. Upload speed was between 1 and 2 Mbps, which is also pretty good.

 

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