Just got back from visiting family in beautiful Blantyre. It’s
rainy season now and there are regular rain showers every other
day. Everything is green and lush. The sun is hot. The air is
moist. And the shopping centres and outdoor markets of Blantyre
are busy with holiday shopping. And except for a couple of power
cuts and short water supply intermissions, I had good access to
Blantyre’s “Big Three” from my part of town.

In search of the best Internet connection in
Blantyre
To connect with my MBA study group, I needed an
internet connection. Here are some of my findings and
observations regarding Internet for private use.

Internet service providers in Blantyre include:

Skyband ”“ the
pricing is on the high end; suitable for corporate
customers.MTLGlobeSDNP

Mobile phone networks offer data services as well:

Zain ”“ a friend connects to the mobile Internet on his iPhone
using Zain.TNM

First, I tried TNM, but unfortunately they did not have any USB
dongles in stock at the Chichiri sales office.

Next I tried Globe’s MAX 4G
service. This promised the best connection speeds, but
unfortunately the reception in my part of Blantyre was less than
optimal. Instead of 4 LEDs lighting up, I only got between 2 and
3. And even then, the router showed a high fluctuation in
signals. I kept losing my Skype audio connection when the signal
dropped. When I got a strong signal it was speedy. But ”“ due to
my geographic position ”“ the signal strength was unpredictable. I
contacted Globe support and they wanted to update the firmware of
the router and stated that they were some problems with Skype,
which they had resolved. If you don’t need audio or video
streaming and if coverage in your area is good, then Globe MAX 4G
is a good and viable option. But check the signal strength
beforehand. Following the signal fluctuations, I started
speculating about the quality of the provided Globe router, the
influence of the weather, etc. When I returned the router, Globe
suggested installing an external antenna to boost the wifi
signal. At the end of the day, I think your geographic position
and proximity to the signal decides whether this solution will
work for you or not.

MTL (Malawi Telecommunications Limited) offers a wireless
broadband product called MTL Liberty. A friend in Namiwawa
strongly recommended it. The company is also advertising a new
fibre optic cable connection in all major newspapers. I walked
into an MTL shop near FMB in Blantyre to find out more about the
fibre optic cable connection. The MTL sales person said that this
will indeed connect Malawi to the Seacom cable and improve the
Internet backbone, but it was not yet connected. He advised me to
go to the MTL headquarters for more information. I didn’t have
time to follow up on this.

I went back to TNM; this time to the head office in Livingstone
Towers. The sales consultant was very savvy and explained the
various data bundling options very well. I found out that if I
have a postpaid TNM sim card, I can easily add mobile data
services. The consultant advised me to wait another week and buy
a 3G USB dongle. He said the 3G USB modem will go on sale on 30th
December 2009. TNM is currently testing 3G in parts of Blantyre.

Automatic software downloads Coming from
Switzerland and a flat rate setup where I don’t care how many MBs
are downloaded in the background, to a price plan where every MB
counts, I realized how dependent software has become on a high
speed internet connection. I was unable to download the latest
Symantec Norton anti-virus update on my mom’s laptop via Globe
Wifi at Chichiri because Norton timed out after 6 MB. I tried 3
times before I gave up. Unfortunately iGetter didn’t help cos
Norton connects directly from the app. All kinds of software from
Adobe Reader to Mozilla Firefox want to connect and download
updates at regular intervals. It’s OK if you’re using a flat rate
but if every kB costs extra time and money”¦

Software companies should consider alternative options for
developing countries. Cloud computing is not yet available
everywhere.

My mom had to go to SDNP to get her legally purchased version of
MS Office registered *online*. What a hassle.

Flat rates connections are not yet very widespread in Malawi and
usually only corporate customers can afford them. Most of my
friends have Internet at their workplace or on their mobile
handset only.

Opera 10 I strongly recommend getting Opera.
Opera Turbo loads web pages much faster and compresses images.
Thank you to Appfrica for their excellent article pointing to
resources and tools.

Web design Pages optimized for mobile internet
and simple HTML load much faster than CMS-based web pages.

I was able to access the mobile version of chiperoni.ch at an
acceptable speed. While other sites failed to display.

If you are targeting developing countries, please consider this
in your web design.

Resize photos for lower bandwidth Same for
emails. My mom still connects using dial-up. Downloading 1.2 MB
takes 20 to 30 minutes and many times the connection breaks. And
she pays for the length of the dial-up connection. But, so many
people from Europe forget
to resize their photos for lower bandwidth
. Please resize
your photos before sending!

In Picasa 3 it’s really easy. Go to Tools > Options
> Email
and select a new size such as 640 pixel:

You can then email a photo from the Picasa interface.

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