FrontlineSMS allows you to text message with large groups of people anywhere there is a mobile signal.

Using Frontline SMS in Mozambique

Hello All,

I am a new member to the Frontline SMS Community. I am working in Northern Mozambique hoping to use frontline sms and forms to collect health survey data. I would be curious if anyone has experience with what phones, modems, and carriers work the best here in Mozambique. I have been attempting several different ways of getting Frontline up and running but have been largely unsuccessful. Any experiences or insights would be very helpful. Thank you.

Tags: Mozambique, collection, data, forms, health, modems, surveys

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Permalink Reply by Dr Sébastien LE BEL on March 17, 2011 at 1:51am

Hi Tom,

I did install and work with FrontLine from my office in France >> no pb.

When arriving in Mozambique, I bought a SIM card for my cellphone and a 3G key at MCel.

I connected the computer to the cell phone >> no pb.

When testing the capacity of the computer to receive a completed form, I did receive the following message with the SMS

AAI+gCUAAAECAQElAAEBAAcBAAESBQAAAa7rBwAAAUEHAAABRAcAAAFHBwAAAAcAAAAHAAAAAgAAAgAAAQAAAQAABwAAAAIAAAEAAQEAAAEAAAEAAAcAAAA=

After when transfering on Excel I only get this info

Message Type,"Message Status","Message Date","Message Content","Sender Number","Recipient Number","Contact Name","Contact Other Mobile Number","Contact E-mail Address","Contact Notes" Received,"Received","2011-03-17 06:50:23"," AAI+gCUAAAECAQElAAEBAAcBAAESBQAAAa7rBwAAAUEHAAABRAcAAAFHBwAAAAcAAAAHAAAAAgAAAgAAAQAAAQAABwAAAAIAAAEAAQEAAAEAAAEAAAcAAAA=","+258847468684","","Sebastien in Mozambique","","",""

Which is not the content of the form.

I am lost about what to do to correct this.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards.

Sébastien

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Permalink Reply by Tom Marentette on March 18, 2011 at 11:24pm

Sebastian,

Thanks for the additional details on your problem with Forms. I've sent an email to the FrontlineSMS team, so they have additional info to help. Thanks for your patience.

kind regards,
Tom

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Permalink Reply by Alex Anderson on March 24, 2011 at 6:21am

Hi Sébastien,

The message will appear as random characters in the Messages tab, but you should be able to see and export the data contained within it via the Forms tab.

Let me know if I've misunderstood the problem,

Alex