It does need to be unlocked, yes, so you’ll need to check whether you can do that here.

If not, a quick poke around the MTC site showed that they had a Samsung A3 (which would be totally fine for basic use) that costs just under the equivalent of $100 USD online. Whether they sell that specific model at the airport store or at what price, though, I couldn’t say.

Hmm. If your SIM is due to expire at the end of November, you may indeed need to top it up to keep it going, but you may just need some kind of ‘activity.’ Assuming you have an MTC SIM, you could try texting #Tango Per Second# to number 134, and see what happens — the idea is that it would put you on to a pure pay-per-second plan. At that point, just send a text to any Namibian number (maybe even including your own), and there’s your ‘activity.’

I don’t know any of that for sure, though. MTC does have a Facebook page that you can message them through, and they do respond eventually. If you’re not with MTC, the provider you’re using may have something similar on offer.

I actually wrote a lengthy guide to traveling in Namibia on my other site, so you’re welcome to check that out as well. 🙂

Thanks Claire! I contacted MTC about this, and they said the following:

“Hi Dave. Our mobile home at the Hosea Kutako International Airport is currently under renovation, however we do have a mobile van parked outside where customers can be be assisted.”

So, for anyone arriving at Windhoek Airport, if you don’t see the MTC store or it hasn’t reopened yet, head outside and you should be able to get your SIM sorted!

Thanks for the great info. At the moment, I refer to your site a lot as I’m currently on a mission to run over 3000km of beach across 184 countries in support of survivors of sexual violence. It’s called Footsteps To Inspire. Just arrived in country 27 – Namibia.
I wanted to give you a heads up that the MTC store is no longer in Windhoek International Airport (only the TN store). You may like to update your blog.

Keep up the awesome posts and thanks again,
Claire

Check out this link (it’s in the post as well) for the range of packages. There’s a ‘build your own’ option called Aweh O-Yeah (who comes up with these names?), and one called Aweh Go that has 50 minutes of national calls, 150 national texts, and a little bit of data, for around $1 USD.

This page gives international text rates. For most countries outside southern Africa, it’s around 7c USD per text, so pretty cheap.

Also, on these plans, are texts to international numbers much more expensive than texts to local numbers?

No, no mistake. I said it was $35 NAD including tax, which is the same as $32 + tax.