We have long had three mobile phones here in the Cairo condo. Linda and I each have a cheap "people's phone" made by Nokia. Linda also brings her trusty Motorola "Flip-Phone" (shown above) from the 1990s which runs on the T-Mobile network at home. We were connected - but "left out" as all the young people surf the net while we couldn't.
Linda upgraded this year to an iPhone at home and in anticipation of our trip to Egypt I visited Best Buy in Bloomington and sought out an employee who "can talk about unlocked GSM phones, interchangeable SIMs and phone frequency coverage." I was quickly steered to "the guru." I soon settled on the Nokia 6.1 with dual SIM.
So now we have Linda's iPhone which runs on T-Mobile and maintains connectivity here via the local Vodafone voice/text network. She gets to use its data capabilities via her WIFI connection in the condo.
I have full voice/text/data/ from Vodafone. We still have a small "people's phone." Here are the old/new local phones:
One of the great features of the new phone is that I can use it as a mobile "hotspot" for our other devices when the DSL Internet connection is down.
So, to summarize: When you come to Egypt, bring a GSM phone (This usually means one that works on T-Mobile or AT&T in the states.) You will have connectivity via your carrier's international roaming policy - this can be quite expensive. If you intend to use the phone a lot, make sure the phone is "unlocked." You will need to verify this with your carrier. Then go to a major Vodafone store when you arrive and get a Vodafone SIM with a local phone number, have them install it in your phone and test it. You will need to bring your passport - not a copy!
By the way, we chose Vodafone because they have a good store in the neighborhood and appear to be the dominant carrier, with 4G network service in many places. There are other carriers. With my dual-SIM phone I can even use two of them interchangeably.
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