What is the internet speed and access like in Mauritius?

Totally useless and slow and expensive!
USD 30 per month for 1mbps down 300kbps up or something like that, takes about a month to set up (2 weeks for fixed line and 2 weeks to have ADSL set up!)

Most of the island is still on ADSL technology with everyone saying fibre is "on the way"

Internet on mobile is quite fast though if you can in a 3G or 4G area but still relatively expensive around USD 30 for 5GB

Welcome!

Internet is slow, I thought it was just mine.

Jangita wrote:

Totally useless and slow and expensive!
USD 30 per month for 1mbps down 300kbps up or something like that, takes about a month to set up (2 weeks for fixed line and 2 weeks to have ADSL set up!)

Most of the island is still on ADSL technology with everyone saying fibre is "on the way"

Internet on mobile is quite fast though if you can in a 3G or 4G area but still relatively expensive around USD 30 for 5GB

Welcome!

Thanks. Which area is best for internet reception? We are planning on coming for 3 months in June and we need to be able to use Skype. What's Skype connectivity like? How fast are mobile internet speeds? We have 4G mobiles.

Thanks for your help. Cheers Tamar

Hello all 

Please note that, so as to avoid the off topic on the ''Top 5 Tips'' thread, a new thread has been created as from your posts on the Mauritius Forum.

Cheers

Kenjee
Expat.com Team

Skype is working fine but sometimes I have to switch off Video in Skype for better reception.

Hi Tamar,

I have since moved  house in Mauritius to get better internet (It is a must to me for my line of work). They have broadband fibre but in particular places. I live in Pointe aux Canonniers in the North, near Grand Baie.

There you can get 10Mbps (which should be good for video conferencing and skype) for about 1000 Rs a month. However you will be required to deposit 5000 Rs a month with Orange and also install a fixed line first before you get your fibre. Total cost to get up and running is abour 110 pounds (6000 Rs) - total time, one month MINIMUM The 10Mbps is limited to 50GB. I burnt through that in one day because I watch netflix/hulu etc in HD and video conference all day.

So for me I took the 10mbps unlimited, quite expensive 55 pounds a month; but to "compensate" i don't use or pay for any of the local pay TVs and stream everything online (BBC, Sky, Netflix etc) including my phone and radio, again because pay TV is relatively expensive.

There is 4G, seems pretty unstable though. Depends on where you are. Sometimes you hit 35Mbps, most of the time it falls back to 3G. Trust me you will burn through those mobile bundles pretty fast and will quickly become expensive.

I recommend getting a house where where you can have the fibre optic installed (ask at Orange and insist because some of the staff don't even know where fibre is and is not), and in the mean time use mobile bundles sparingly.

Good luck!

Hi Jamgita,

Thanks for your in depth response. We arrived here on 9th June and have been living in Perybere where the internet has been pretty dreadful.
We are moving to Trois Aux Biches tomorrow to an apartment which is connected to Orange though the speed test said it was only 2 Mb download speed.

We did visit Pointes aux Cannoniers - the Coffee Garden cafe - which had 9mb download- fantastic- but couldn't find anywhere to rent in the area .

Hopefully the internet  will be up to scratch in our new apartment or maybe we'll be able to upgrade it as it is with Orange. Fingers crossed .

Cheers,
Tamar

PS Loving Mauritius otherwise

Hi I have been following your conversations. I am interested in how you found your apartment as I seem to only find long term stays
Thanks for your advise

All i can say is that its damn slow for the price we are paying.

Hi Barbara,

I see from your profile that you're not actually living in Mauritius- is that still correct?

We're here for just 3 months.
Before we left we googled "real agents in mauritius" and told them when we were coming and what we were after.
We got many replies but of course couldn't commit until we got here. Places always look different to their pictures!

We booked an AirBnB place in Pereybere for the first week so we had somewhere to stay when we landed and then started hunting.

We re contacted the Real Estate Agents,looked up Trip Advisor, went door knocking, and ended up in an apartment from our of those Real Estate Agents that we contacted.

Yes- there were many who wanted a 1 year lease but you just keep looking. We found most were ok with 3 months. You do need to be sure because they want all the money upfront and there's also 10% agent commission that you pay separately on top of the rent so look out for that too.

When are you coming?

Cheers,
Tamar

We've upgraded to 4mb/sec so we'll see how it goes! Fingers crossed!

Cheers,

Tamar

Hi Tamar
Thank you for your message it is very helpful.
I am getting loads of responses but as you say it is better to be able to see for oneself.
How have  you settled?

Well, apart from discovering that there's a building site right next door half an hour after we handed over the money.....we've settled in well!! Just have to close the door to the back room!!!
We have rented a car though they say the buses are cheap and run often! Guess we just like to be able to up and go when we want to.

We rented a car from a "friend" of the car rental guy for 15,000rps per month (usually about 26,000rps) and I must say except for peak hour in Grand Baie and I'm sure in Port Louis where we haven't ventured yet, the traffic is good - easy driving. Probably because petrol prices are high!! 45,995rps per litre! Do the conversion!

Food is good,supermarkets have everything and of course the roadside stalls are very cheap for fruit and veges.

We're really enjoying it here. Beautiful weather! We're living two minutes from the beach which is long and sandy- great for sunset(or sunrise) walks and the water is sublime!

When are you planning on coming?

For me I've just got to find some live music...aah I feel a new forum thread coming up...

Cheers,
Tamar

Hi Jamgita,

The place we've rented has a fixed line installed already with Orange which was on 2mbs which we've upgraded to 4mbs.But after re-reading your post it sounds like we could upgrade further...shall give it a go and see  how we go!

Thanks again

Cheers,
tamar

I'm just waiting for my permit.  Hopefully mid July I should be there.  Where are you staying am I retested in the closeness of the beach.  The beach and the sea are very important to me.

You need a permit? Where are you coming from?

We're living in Trois Aux Biches nd are 5 minutes walk to the sea! Yes - beach and sea are important to us too!

It is an island and there's plenty of beach here .

Cheers

I'm coming from England

slow

New service just popped up from Emtel called AirBox

They offer 10 mbps / 20 mpbs / 30 mpbs connection speed.

The price is , for the 30mpbs its around 54dollars/month and the 10mbps around 28 dollars

I guess it is still a bit expensive compared to the services you might get abroad. 

Still waiting for feedbacks from people who just signed up. So far so good.

Regards
Kenjee

Residential: Somedays so so slow and others so so quick
Offices: Quick

Jambo all!

As kenjee mentioned i've heard about the new emtel service. Seems to be a lot cheaper (Rs 934 per month vs Rs 2300 for orange for same capacity). However I'm tied to a 12 month contract with orange which I just realised, so to exit i'll have to pay them the remaining months upfront! So I'm stuck with them. Their 10Mbps unlimited seems to be working ok so far, tests show that it is actually true 10Mbps for download and a measly 1Mbps for uploads.

I have some ninja geeks testing the emtel airbox out - will post back with findings. Seems to be based on line of site microwave from the hills next to port louis. They are selling 10Mbps (with a star which = * Fair Usage Policy applies.) for Rs 934 per month (with two stars which = ** Tariff apply for payment through direct debit.).

So from what I can see, its 10Mbps subject to their fair usage policy which states that they can terminate, reduce or suspend connection if you use the link "excessively" which is suspiciously ambiguous. If I promise to give you one glass of water a day, I doubt you'd be able to use it excessively because it is limited to a glass a day!

The price (Rs 934 per month) seems to be only applicable if you set up a bank direct debit (probably give them the bank letter acknowledging this), if it's cash who knows how much they'll charge. They also tie you to a one year contract, so if you apply and want to exit after month 2, you have to pay 10 months (12 -2 upfront to exit). Looks quite promising for the price though.

TamarG are you in Morcellement Djhoboo? You might be living in my old house! I moved into an apartment because I would find that I don't have enough time to tend to the garden and surroundings. I'm a town buff lol.

Heard another news from several people, Canal + satellite tv will also be introducing their Canalbox, like in Reunion island and elsewhere Canal+ is available. ( Fast Internet + Tv + Telephone Calls )

Wanted to sign for the Emtel airbox, since I am paying more or less the same price ( including my telephone bills ) for a 1MB My-t connection. With the same price, I could have a 20 Mbps connection with emtel!!! ( 20 times faster    , but in real i'll bet its 50 times faster, since the my.t connection s*cks))

Will wait to see the prices of Canalbox, since I already have canal+.

Do tell us here how the airbox connection is for those who already signed up.

Regards
Kenjee

Interestingly, I am able to stream canal + and canal play for 8 euros a month (first month free) through my Orange 10mbps onto my regular TV using a chromecast or through my ps4. You can find it by googling canal play. Streams well and in HD. Of course I had to do some configs. My mauritian MCB prepaid card seems to go through ok. I don't understand French though so I'll cancel before the first free month is over!

I'm quite stubborn when it comes to TV subscriptions when I'm paying quite a bit for my internet.

Will definitely look into that!

Thanks for the tip

Canal+ has it now also on their webpage, offering Internet together with their TV program. Sounds similar to what Emtel Airbox offers...including this fair usage crap. But no idea on the availability when they start it now, I guess it is first only in the main regions /Cities available. Think it was like 2000Rs for the 2nd lowest TV bouquet and 20Mbps internet.

Jangita,
Re "TamarG are you in Morcellement Djhoboo? You might be living in my old house! I moved into an apartment because I would find that I don't have enough time to tend to the garden and surroundings. I'm a town buff lol."

Actually we're in a flat in a block called La Residence Coralline abpiut a block back from the main road near Popo's supermarket.!

We stuck to the 4 mb download . Actually we had a lot of trouble cos we were always going offline! The landline went off and the technician who came to fix it told us that the modem/router overheats! That we should turn it off for at least 10 minutes to let it cool down.None of the MANY technicians who either came around or sorted it out on the phone told us that! So there's a big hint! And that's exactly what we do! If we go offline, we turn the modem/router off,wait for at least 10 minutes, turn it on again and give it another 10 minutes or so to get going ad it works fine!

The 4mb downoad speed seems to be fine, though sometimes phonecalls on Skype break up a little so  i just ring back and that seems to clear it. The streaming is fineand we are connected to the MYT TV service which we don't use much as it's mostly in french though my other half watches the aussie rugby league live so he's happy!!

Cheers,
tamar

That's great! Try to put the router directly on the floor as I used to do while on ADSL, the floor helped cool it down. Or buy a linksys ADSL router if you can. Or direct the fan to blow onto the router LOL

For Airbox, installation was 2 weeks later than promised - reason being they are too busy to keep up with demand. Then speeds are much lower than promised, high latency, but at least the service is consistent. Their excuse is that they have too many customers to adequately serve. Quite disappointing, but it seems to get better with time. It seems the recent rains change the speed. They said they are going to add other antennas on top of signal mountain - which all the dishes seem to point.

I guess the best internet seems to be Orange so far. When it works it works well. Their fiber which I am on has been excellent for the last one month, but seems to be slowly slowing down! The only issue I have with Orange is when you have a problem, it take a while to solve (if they can solve it) Oh and keep an eye on the phone bill! I've been charged double quite a number of times!

For info, heard that CEB ( Cental Electricity Board) will  be providing Internet access soon too.


Will keep you tuned up about that. 

For fast internet presently we have :

1. Orange
2. Emtel Airbox
3. Canal + Box (same service as Airbox )


Regards

Agreed. My neighbour has Canal + lets see how it is.

10mbps..

If you are around Cascavelle don't choose emtel it really sucks here. Sometimes it is good. But not worth to be called an office broadband since a steady work is not possible with it.
Their official answer:

"Please note that I have contacted the technical team and they advised me that Cascavelle Village is a known coverage area and we do have plans to  improve coverage in the region.
Our plan is to do it at earliest in 2016 but at this stage no specific date has been defined".

So can be easily take longer. Airbox in the south west  also seems to be a far project.

Perhaps because medine won't let anyone put mobile towers anywhere.

I have to say I have seen some mobile towers here that are made to look like huge Palm tree's, notably the one at Yemmen roundabout - love them wish the UK did the same with our ugly ones

My internet connection was perfect using orange in QB, any issues and their helpline was accessible and efficient in addressing any problems, in fact I have to say it's much better than vodafone in Ireland, always breaking connection for updates and repairs without warning and their helpline is non existent...so for a "less developed" country, Mauritius is better than Ireland for internet in my experience anyway.

I know this is an old post, but the question still comes up often.  Having worked for an Internet provider, all I can say is that it depends on what you are looking for. Certainly, residential  internet may be called poor at times, but then you also have premium/specialised services for businesses with a guaranteed bandwidth. If you are looking to start a cheap hosted server service in Mauritius, you are in the wrong place. Do not compare prices with Europe or the U.S.A, or Asia for that matter. Those continents have major world player Internet backbone providers all competing with each other, Mauritius does not. Many Internet intensive businesses here use the bandwidth to offer value added services.  Feel free to reach out to me if you need help.

Hii,

It is almost 2018, what type of internet do u recommend now? For snapchat, uploading a youtube video maybe, and slype without cam , and what are safe areas to live in, i'd like to live somewhere like around students , or near to the beach but with people around , Clean and cheap price, what is good for me?where can i find thet and what are the prices, Thank you a lot

Hi Yara,
There is fiber optic connection now almost everywhere with minimum speeds of 10mbps. It's more than enough for what you mentioned + you can get much higher speeds too if you are willing to pay for it. If you want to live in a more happening place
then Grand Baie is the best option, you have beaches, bars, restaurants, shopping malls,  everything. However, it all depends on what you will be doing in Mauritius (where your job / school etc. is).
PM me for more info if you wish.
Good day

Hi everyone,

If all goes well, my family and I will be moving to Mauritius in early 2019. We're keen to move to the Black River area, but the internet speed/reliability is a big issue as I need to be online all day for work. Is fibre available everywhere, and if so, is it reliable and quick?

Many thanks,

Andy

Fibre is now available all over the island with few exceptions. Black River area has very good connection (I live in Tamarin). Speed is up to 30mbps residential and up to 100mbps business. Reliable 100% of the time (for me at least).  I got the 20mbps offer and it's more than fast enough (and I watch a lot of video content in 4K).