A friend of mine who is currently in Tbilisi was kind enough to answer a few questions for me. To summarize:
- The mobile phone networks are working fine in Tbilisi.
- Magticom is the preferred network provider as it has the best coverage.
- No news on how the networks are functioning in South Ossetia.
- My friend is currently using an “impressively fast” landline for INTERNET that is faster than the WiFi back home. Skype, Outlook, etc. all work fine. Skype video is exceptionally good.
- Things are returning to normal in Tbilisi and seem to be getting back to the way they were before the conflict.
I didn’t want to bother with asking too many questions straight out of the gate as time spent answering questions means time away from the real work. I’ll see if I can collect some more info once things slow down a bit.
So, if you are headed to Tbilisi it looks like you are not going to have too much trouble connecting.
(Please note that Skype was mentioned. It is the unheralded champion of the humanitarian community and has become one of the most important pieces of humanitarian kit out there today.)
