Cotonou - Post Report Question and Answers
Is high-speed home Internet access available? How long does it typically take to install it after arrival?
We used fiber cable which worked great! - Oct 2024
MTN is pretty good. It tends to slow at the end of the month, especially around holidays. - Feb 2020
Embassy provides temporary internet as a courtesy for a few days/weeks until you obtain it. Monthly cost is around US$85-90/month (after tax refund). Speed is usually adequate but can be less great especially if you go over the 150GB limit. - Aug 2018
Yes. One or two weeks to install. - Jan 2017
US$80. - Oct 2015
Yes, but 'high-speed' in the loosest most sense of the word and it is expensive. - Jun 2015
Technically yes, but it's high-speed for Benin. I had a 1mb DSL line which cost US$160/mo. I could maybe stream things late at night. The ping will be bad (usually 150-250+ ms), and you will experience frequent packet loss. Expect to spend lots of time buffering low-quality streams. I understand there are satellite options as well, which can only be worse. There's also a "wireless" internet option (probably using some sort of fob), but I have no direct knowledge of its performance. - Aug 2014
This varies. Neighborhoods without landlines are stuck with satellite internet. I pay $200/month for a connection that is too slow to stream video and only sometimes is good enough to use Skype. Others in neighborhoods with landlines pay a little less for much higher-speed connections that allow video streaming. - May 2013
Medium speed available for more than $150 per month. - Mar 2013
While I wouldn’t go as far as calling it “high-speed,” ADSL Internet service is available. It’s ok for e-mail, online shopping, FB chat, and my Vonage phone. Skype with video gets iffy, and I don’t have much luck with streaming video. Don’t expect to download movies or use Slingbox. We pay about US$180/month. Yep, it ain’t cheep. Warning! Most U.S. based e-commerce sites don’t like West-African ISPs popping up and many will block the local ISP. Remember, we’re right next door to Nigeria and many Nigerian Internet scammers have moved here. I use a VPN appliance which gives me a SSL connection to an ISP in the States. - Dec 2011
