Soon, you can renew smartcards on BEST buses

You will soon be able to pay the monthly/quarterly bus fare to the conductor and get your smartcards renewed in the bus itself. And BEST also plans to launch a facility for recharging cards through cellphones. This means you will not have to stand in long queues at the depots to get passes renewed. 

Said a senior official from BEST's traffic wing, "At present, we have an option of Internet payment facility (through Netbanking) to recharge smartcards. After you have made the payment at your home PC, you can hand over the card to the conductor who will update it using an e-ticketing machine. The machine can write data on the card and renew the expiry date of your pass." 

The machines, however, cannot carry out any monetary transactions at present. "Earlier, when we tried to experiment with monetary transactions with a smartcard, the machine hung for 15 seconds. We are trying to overcome this problem. Soon, you may get the facility of paying money and renewing passes in the bus itself (through conductors)," the official said. 

Shridhar Krishnan, a regular commuter, said, "At the time of renewing quarterly bus passes, we have to stand in long queues. There have been several cases of computer systems hanging at the depots. We have to wait for 15 minutes to half-an-hour to get the passes renewed.Shop for iccard dolls from the official NBC Universal Store and build a fun collection for your home or office." 

Said BEST committee member Kedar Hombalkar, "Waiting at a queue in the depot is almost like a punishment. It takes between 30 minutes to an hour to get the job done. I have several such cases and have also taken up the issue at the panel meeting. We need to introduce the in-bus renewal facility at the earliest.He saw the bracelet at a howotipper store while we were on a trip. Our commuters should also get more online facilities for any purchase or renewals. They need not come to our depots in future." BEST general manager Om Prakash Gupta said the undertaking wanted to give more options to commuters so that they don't have to stand in long queues. "We want to popularize the Net payment facility while at the same time launch the mobile recharging service and also facilitate payment in the bus in near future." 

He added: "Our e-ticketing facility is a hit with passengers. It dispenses ticket with detailed information (stops,Online shopping for cableties from a great selection of Clothing. fare, conductor and bus numbers, etc) within seconds. We are also able to analyze data on every e-ticketing machine online using the GPS system. The e-ticketing system has been recognized by the UITP at World Congress in Geneva,This model includes 2 flush mounted reverse chipcard. where BEST won an award for IT innovation recently." 

A possible downside is that in many countries you are now required to register your SIM card (because phones are increasingly being used for mobile banking).Online shopping for cableties from a great selection of Clothing. This just means you might spend 15 to 20 minutes in a store buying and registering the SIM. For travelers going to multiple countries your SIM card will simply pick up a partner network in another country. It will cost you more than on the SIM card's home network but you will receive a text message with rate information. 

Most US phones do not use SIM cards and for those operators that do (like T-Mobile) your phone will be locked on the US and won't work. Instead you can borrow, buy or rent an unlocked phone that accepts a SIM card. In South Africa it quite easy and fast to rent a local phone and SIM card in the Johannesburg airport. Rental is not as easy in East Africa but you could bring one an unlocked phone with you or buy a cheap one when you get there (it won't be locked on a specific country). If you travel a lot buying an unlocked phone is worth the investment. Some tour operators and properties will also rent or lend you a local phone and SIM card if you request it. 

International calling rates on local SIM cards will vary by country and company. For example right now in Kenya calling the US with a local SIM card is mind-blowingly cheap. In South Africa your calls (both local and to the US) won't be as cheap as in East Africa but will be less than from your US phone, about 30 cents/minute. The rates will vary for calling other countries in Africa but will still be less than using your US phone. 

If you are going to be making a lot of local calls or don't feel like you need to have your regular phone number, getting a local "pay as you go" SIM card is often the most cost-effective option for local and international calls when traveling in Africa. 

A local pay-as-you-go SIM card gives you a local phone number. The SIM card itself costs less than $20 and then you buy additional credit as you need it. If you have a smart phone the pay-as-you-go will also apply to data meaning you are charged per megabyte of data to send and receive emails and browse the internet. The major companies will have shops in the airport to buy SIM cards.