I got a cheap cell phone "Nokia 1280" that I can not think of in Japan in Africa

Hello,Around the World Bicycle WorldIt is Takuya Sudo @ Chaliderman. Mobile is indispensable to daily life even in Africa. Because the fixed telephone network as infrastructure is not set up in the country, the importance will be higher than Japan.

That's why cheap cell phones that can reach out to anyone are sold. I also bought a cheap cell phone in Dakar, Senegal, when I traveled to Africa. It can not be thought of as a Galapagosatized Japanese manufacturer, but in the world it is used as such a simple mobile. Black and white liquid crystal is fine. Alarm clock, calculator, light, calendar, FM radio and various functions are attached.

I decided to look for a cell phone in Dakar, capital of Senegal. I wanted to use it as an alarm clock, for the best reason, in addition I was thinking about taking measures against bribes in Africa. "Well, I need money here? It is true, I will wait a moment and check with the embassy", but I assumed that there is no turn.

In front of the official office of Orange, a mobile service company deploying services in Senegal, there are several stalls where boxes are packed like this in this way. I got it here.


Cheerful young people who were selling mobile phones.


This is the "Nokia 1280" you got. Since there are no price tags in such stalls, we negotiated further and bought it with SIM card at 14,000 CFA (about 21.5 euro, about 2200 yen). Without a SIM card, it was 13000 CFA (about 20 euro, about 2050 yen).


In Sierra Leone, the same model was sold at 135,000 Leons (about 22.5 euro, about 2300 yen).


There is a space to put the SIM card behind the battery.


Let's get a SIM card to be able to use your mobile. If there is no SIM card, the function is restricted and it will not be used. Prepaid services are the mainstream in Africa's mobile, and SIM cards are also easily obtained at mobile shops and shops.


This is the surface of the box


There are many linguistic notations on the reverse side.


Each,

En = english (English)
Fr = french (French)
Pt = portuguese (Portuguese)
Ar = arabic (Arabic)
Fa = farsi (Persian, Iran)
Ur = urdu (Urdu, Pakistan)

And from India to Pakistan through Iran and the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The language setting of the mobile body is

English (English)
Francais (French)
Lingala (Linguala)
Kiswahili (Swahili)

And switched to 4 languages. English is mainly used in India and East, South Africa, French is mainly in West and Central Africa. The ringing languages ​​are Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo, Swahili is used around Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

This cell phone is made in India. This mobile which is written as GSM 900/1800 is not the 3rd generation (3G) per second generation (2G). If it is called NTT docomo it will be mova (2G) instead of FOMA (3G).


There are only a number of instructions for this manual.


Here is a charger.


Although it is such a simple cell phone, it has many convenient functions. A calculator useful for shopping.


calendar. Visa application at the embassy is convenient because you can know the date when you specify your entry date.


Stopwatch


Unit conversion. It is kilometers and miles, pounds and kilograms, ounces and grams, and it transforms two different units.


alarm clock. This was my primary objective.


Earphones are necessary because speakers can not be used, but FM radio can also be heard.


If you press the cross key twice in succession, the light glows. Since there is no electricity, even in the presence of electricity, power outages occur frequently in Africa, so this mobile light is useful.


Three mini games are also included.


Breakdown of pre-installed games.

SnakeXenzia: A familiar mini game that will increase the total length of the snake and score points.
Soccer League: A simple football game.
Bounce: Use the four-way controller to maneuver the balls and capture the stage one after another.

I used a mobile similar to this in Australia in 2007. The body is thicker than the model you purchased this time. There is no FM radio, there is only one mini game. It seems that cheap cell phones are evolving along with the flow of the times.


NOKIA, the world's largest mobile maker, is fighting in the global market from cheap mobile phones. And it will increase brand power. By looking at this, Japanese mobile makers who have not been able to fight the world while having high technical capabilities are regretted.

Because SIM locked Japanese mobile is hard to use, how about getting such a cheap phone when you go abroad?

(Sentence / picture: Takuya SAITO @ Charriderman
Cycling around the world for a bicyclehttp://shuutak.com)