mobile phone and internet

[mitico67]

A friend of mine will be in Natal from 5th January to the end of June if he can get a six months visa. He will need to use the internet quite often and the telephone. Can a foreigner buy a pay as you go mobile phone? If yes which company is best? Does it need a Cpf? If he rent an apt with internet connection will he be able to have a short term contract from a IP? Can anyone reccomend an internet cafe? When I was in Natal I've used the internet at my hotel and it was quite slow. Anuy info much appreciated

[michaelbush]

Originally Posted by mitico67

A friend of mine will be in Natal from 5th January to the end of June if he can get a six months visa. He will need to use the internet quite often and the telephone. Can a foreigner buy a pay as you go mobile phone? If yes which company is best? Does it need a Cpf? If he rent an apt with internet connection will he be able to have a short term contract from a IP? Can anyone reccomend an internet cafe? When I was in Natal I've used the internet at my hotel and it was quite slow. Anuy info much appreciated

Foreigners can buy a mobile pay as you go, without CPF I believe. Calls are ridiculously expensive so I suggest he also gets Skype downloaded!! The best one is difficlut to call, since all have offers. eg, With Oi there is a bonus of 100 minutes calls when you top up just 10R$. Dont know if it is still available. Others have double minutes etc. But the standard cost is close to 1R$ per minute locally and inter state is treated almost like international!! Internet cafes abound in Natal like anywhere, but there are also free WiFi access in most of the shopping centres. your friend may be better off to rent an apartment for six months, than stay in a hotel, and several will already have internet for the building included in the condo charge. Or a business centre in reception he can use.

[Golfingworld]

Inga Praia Hotel I am paying $R80 per night over new year includes free secure wifi internet, on it now! Can't go far wrong here for starters until he gets his bearings. Phone I have TIM pay as you go SIM cost was $R20 to start and I just ask UK to call me, also used skype to speak to UK and msn etc. My UK phone stopped working good thing saved me a fortune.

[robh]

My advice is get a CPF and get a contract phone otherwise you will pay through the nose on pay as you go.

If you are rarely going to make calls then pay as you go will do, but as I found out to my cost, you will pay roaming charges to both make and receive calls when you go into other states. The roaming charges are not cheap.

Get skype if you can to make calls as it works very well in Brazil and you will save a fortune.

Another trick is to buy a skype-in number for the UK and buy skype-out credits. Divert your skype id to your mobile in Brazil. So if anyone wants to call you from the UK on your mobile in Brazil then they just dial your UK skype-in number and your Brazil mobile rings .

[surfingbrazil]

Thera are FREE OF COST wireless areas for INTERNET in mayor shopping malls in Natal.
Thus, if you bring you own laptop and the correct software your possibilities are huge.

Happy new year

[robh]

I have been using a program called fring from fring.com which runs on mobiles with wireless Internet capabilities. It allows you to make skype calls from your mobile when you are in wireless range, a bit easier than lugging the laptop around.