Using A Cellphone

In Egypt, the two major mobile phone service providers are Mobinil and Vodaphone, both of which rent you a temporary phone number on a SIM card that slides into your GSM phone.

At Vodafone, just renting the basic line costs about LE 78 for one month, and you have to charge your phone with minute cards that cost LE 25, 50, 100 or 200. A local call costs LE 1.25 a minute. (Vodafone tel. 02/529-2888; www.vodafone.com.eg)

Mobinil offers a similar set up, but local calls are slightly cheaper at LE 0.75 per minute. (MobiNil tel. 02/760-9090; www.mobinil.com)

If you don't own a GSM set, you might have trouble renting one in Egypt. At time of writing, there were no reputable local stores that rent handsets.