Question

Hi. A friend recently purchased a mobicel Cherry and took it to Zambia. This is an MTN package with 3 months of data and MTN prepaid can roam in Zambia. On arrival she had the following issue: with the mtn sim card she can access the internet, but only by usung airtime, i.e. out of bundle even though she has a lot of data available. With a with a Zambian sim card she can make phone calls, but cannot access the internet, even though she has a lot of data available. On her previous trip she used my Blackberry and the same Zambian network operator and had no problem. It sounds like the Cherry is not seeing the zambian data band. Is there a user accessible workaround? Thanks in advance.
Richard.

Answer 1

Hey - here is what is likely going on

• The MTN prepaid will roam but only for voice calls (and not data service with it) unless if the Blackberry was used for data service in Zambia while roaming on MTN succefully. This makes sense as 'roaming data rates' differs from domestic rates and subscribers will normally need to take up a special plan for the purpose. The 3 months bundles are most likely valid when used domestically.
• With the Zambian SIM, it must be that the tablet requires that the APN should be configured manually under Settings > More... Mobile Networks > APN > ... and there on create a new one using values used by the Zambia carrier.
• I may have missed something, do kindly comment below if I have.