Like many others in Yemen on the 4th November, i bought a bag of Qat, and pulled an all nighter watching the US election coverage on TV zapping between BBC, Sky, Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera and even France 24.
By far the BBC coverage was the most clunky but i think that was because they had a boatload of guests to squeeze in. The Jeremy Vine touchscreen wotsit made me nauseous. Simon Schama the historian was clearly pissed and close to drooling involuntarily all over the desk. It …

Etisalat (GSM) in UAE offer a ‘Wasel’ card which is for travellers and visitors. It is very easy to get one and you can get one on entry at all airports and at the major shopping centres.
Wasel cards are prepaid and can be bought in 25 and 40 AED denominations. To keep your Wasel card activated you have to pay a renewal fee of 100 AED a year (about $30 US)
The Wasel card should roam automatically if it is still activated with credit, but check with whoever you are buying …

It is possible to access the internet without a direct connection using WIFI or a fixed line.
I use a CDMA mobile phone on the Yemen Mobile network connected to my laptop. I have a post paid Yemen Mobile contract which is what you need to access this service.
Once you have got the phone and laptop configured to talk to each other (not difficult but let us know if you need help) you need the following details in your PC connection settings:
Phone number: #777
Username: ymobile
Password: ymobile
It costs about 15 riyals a …

It is very easy to get a local SIM card in Yemen.
For Yemen Mobile CDMA network:
You need a passport, a local address e.g. company or sponsor, and about 2,000 yemeni riyals. You can go to most local phone shops or goto the Yemen Mobile offices in Al Tahrir square or on Haddah Street to get one. You can get either a post paid or pre paid SIM card.
For local GSM networks:
MTN and Sabafon offer both post and prepaid SIMs. Same procedure as above. The MTN office is on …

In Yemen there are 4 mobile phone networks:

Yemen Mobile : CDMA
MTN (previously called Spacetel) : GSM
Sabafon : GSM
Yu : GSM

All Yemen GSM networks operate on 900 mhz so make sure your phone is at least dual band and covers this frequency…all European handsets do and most others will if they are ‘tri-band’.
I do not use a ‘foreign’ CDMA phone in Yemen so i dont know how roaming works. I do however use a locally bought CDMA phone which cost about $90. However i do know that if you have a …