Heading down to Maputo today to start the odyssey that hopefully will climax with a brief, expensive and priceless stay in Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania as well as some jaunts into Northern Moz. Before I go a fora da rede, i wanted to share a cool little loophole in the mcel phone network here. Apparently, certain US area codes, when coupled with the international calling code (001) for the US, produces some interesting results. Specifically, some area codes match up with mcel service codes that are free to call here (like numbers you dial to check to see how much credit you have or to contact technical assistance)
For example: Chana’s number is 321-XXX-XXXX. With the International calling code tacked onto the front, it’s 001-321-XXX-XXXX
The code to check your credit is “132″ which are the first three numbers in Chana’s number. The zeroes don’t count apparently.
I don’t know why this works, but it does. I don’t know for how long it will work, but I talked to Chana for about 90 minutes the other night without spending one centavo.
Apparently the codes are different combinations of 8, 2, 1, and 3… No, to my knowledge 239 does not work, though that would pretty much be the best thing ever if it did. But if you have a combination of those digits as your area code, let me know and in January when I come back we’ll give it a shot.
As I said earlier, I will be out of service until about Jan 18th (that includes our Mid-Service Conference for Moz 11in Maputo) . So once again
boas festes, e boas entradas ao novo ano!
