Map of Egypt-Carminat Tom Tom Live

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<img src="/styles/default/custom/flags/eg.png" alt="Egypt" /> Egypt
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Carminat Tom Tom Live
I tried posting on the Tom Tom forums but basically got no feedback except from moderators from this forum! I wanted to know if Tom Tom had any plans of releasing a map of Egypt since my carminat is basically useless without it. I think its really weird they havent released a map of Egypt since its known for the large number of tourists (over 14 million a year!!!).
 
Thank you for your help and I greatly appreciate your assistance. From what I can tell they have 2 maps of Africa, one for hand held GPS devises like the Go 500/600 and another map for the built in car navigation devices. The Built in car navigation devises (like the Carminat Tom Tom live which I have and any other built in car device like the Subaru or the Toyata for example) has a map of Africa with only 29 countries and Egypt is not one of them. The map of Africa for the handheld devices covers 59 countries and Egypt is included. I do not understand the reason for this since they should have the same POI's and data.
 
Has to do with the size of the map and the size of the storage in the device to handle the map, I presume.
 
Almost true. The Africa map for most other stand-alone units are the same. 29 countries, Egypt not included. It seems only the latest units with 8GB of memory get the full 57 country version... which is silly. The 'big' map is only 735MB.

But I agree that it's very odd that they never produced even a zone map for any of the earlier units that included Egypt in one way or another. You'd think with the assortment below (in particular, West Africa) they might have caught it. I guess what is missing for most units is a "NORTHERN AFRICA' map?!? The whole are between Morocco and the Middle East is a black hole for most TomTom units.

For those that aren't aware, here are the Africa maps available for a Carminat unit, all other Nav2 units, and all Nav3 units. I believe the 57 country African map is available only for Nav4 units.

AFRICA: (29 countries)
Detailed coverage
South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Morocco, Mauritius, Mayotte, Namibia, Réunion
Partial coverage
Angola (20%), Benin (8%), Botswana (45%), Burkina Faso (8%), Burundi (7%), Cameroon (7%), Congo (28%), Gabon (38%), Ghana (12%), Kenya (30%), Malawi (13%), Mali (11%), Mauritania (24%), Mozambique (26%), Nigeria (42%), Niger (5%), Rwanda (15%), Senegal (8%), United Republic of Tanzania (12%), Togo (14%), Uganda (10%), Zambia (29%), Zimbabwe (27%)

EAST AFRICA:
Connecting roads
United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Réunion, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

MIDDLE AFRICA
Connecting roads

Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon

SOUTH AFRICA, SWAZILAND AND LESOTHO:
Detailed coverage

South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho

SOUTHERN AFRICA
Detailed coverage
South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho
Connecting roads
Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe

WEST AFRICA:
Detailed coverage

South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho
Connecting roads
Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe
 
I do not think it is related to the size of the map since the Carminat accepts any kind of External SD and not only the standard Tom Tom SD. I have an 8 GB SD and it works fine on the device. I believe it is related to governmental issues since the countries excluded from the full map are all countries with governmental issues like Egypt and Tunis. It is very annoying to be honest and I hope they realize that theres no need to make separate maps and their consumers do need the maps because Ive seen more then one person request them.
 
I'm not sure how 'governmental issues' factors into this. Depending upon the model of TomTom you buy, you can get the 57 country version of the Africa map. I don't think governments care whether you are running an old GO 940 or a new GO 600.
 
You are talking about handheld devices, I agree to what you are saying but only concerning handheld devices, the issue is with the buit in car navigation. If you gi through any of the built in car navigation systems you will not find the full 57 country map of Africa. I do know the army has restrictions on things like thathere in egypt but imsure its not a problem for TomTom to sell the same map for these devices.
 
First, calling the other units 'handhelds' confuses the issue. They really aren't. A handheld is the sort you could take on a hike (Magellan, Garmin and similar that are designed to run many hours on batteries).

The reason that none of the 'non-handheld' units have a 57 country map is BECAUSE none of the in-car navigation systems are of the latest "Nav4" vintage that allows (for whatever reason) for the larger 57 country map. All of the units that have come in vehicles so far are of the older Nav2 or Nav3 vintage. It makes no difference if they come with a vehicle or not. If they are of the older Nav2 or Nav3 vintage, ONLY the 29 country map is available. It has nothing to do with whether they came in a car or are standalone! This may be in part because until 2009, these earlier generations were being built when GPS usage was not permitted for civilians in Egypt. I do not know why they haven't gone ahead and started building Africa maps with Egypt for these older units except that they probably think that people who bought these would therefore have never bothered to take them to Egypt anyway.

Your device is of the old vintage, that which we call Nav2. These are manipulated using the TomTom HOME application. No 57 country Africa map available on ANY Nav2 unit whether stand-alone or integrated in the car.
In the interim version we call Nav3. These are on an entirely different platform, and are manipulated using the MyDrive application. No 57 country Africa map available on ANY Nav3 unit whether stand-alone or integrated in the car.
Very recently, we have an entirely new platform upon which Nav4 devices are being designed. These are the ONLY units so far that include the 57 country Africa map, and these are being marketed all over Africa.

Why TomTom did not later decide to include the additional 28 African countries in the 'Africa' map for Nav2/Nav3 devices, I don't know. Again, perhaps it was they knew that they would have previously had no customers in those countries that owned such units because of the lack of maps for so many years, and decided not to make another branch of maps for these older units due to lack of possible customers for those maps.

Each map set is built uniquely for each generation of device, and within a generation, there are additional variations that take into account the amount of memory available internally, whether a card slot is available, etc. However, they are now selling units (Nav4) where the 'Africa' map build includes all 57.

There are not yet any of the new Nav4 units built for in-dash or similar designs from the auto manufacturers. WHEN those occur, then you will find them with 57 country Africa maps.
 
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Also, "I do know the army has restrictions on things like thathere in egypt.."

I believe that there are only two countries that still have blanket restrictions on the possession and use of a GPS (regardless of what map is on it!) - and of course, North Korea has to be one of them! Egypt changed their stance on this back in 2009 to permit civilian GPS use. That applied to smart phones with GPS as well, which was good for companies like Nokia that were going crazy having to create special versions for import.

Cairo, 04 April 2009
The latest board meeting of National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) issued a number of decisions about the usage of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices in Egypt.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel.
NTRA Executive Director Dr. Amr Badawy said the decisions allow the import of cars equipped with GPS and navigation programs. NTRA, he added, informed the Customs Authority to act accordingly.
The new rules also permit the import of GPS-enabled mobile phones, computers and other devices with civilian applications provided that NTRA authorizes the type of machines based on its criteria and procedures.


The (ahem) change in government in recent history has changed a lot of things, not all for the better, but has not modified the stance on this particular issue. Why am I telling you this? You live there!
 
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Thanks for the feed back but im telling you about the restrictions they still have here because i recently tried to attach gos tracking devises to taxis here to track the traffic for a study with the help of microsoft but we were denied by the army for security reasons so they are still a bit cautious of gps systems here. But i agree with you that its a different story when it concerns consumers. Im hoping they will release a map for egypt for my carminat because without it the carminat is basically useless, its just a black screen :(
 
WHOA, dude. If you read the rest of the message from the Minister of Communications, GPS TRACKING devices are another story altogether. Let's not mix up the technology here.

Meanwhile, Automatic Vehicle Location (online AVL) online services can only be authorized by NTRA according to specific regulations and in coordination with the concerned security authorities. AVL systems are currently tested in trains and ambulances.
 
Yeah you're right, I got mixed up with all the technology!!!! Do you understand now why I was thinking that itsa governmental issue.....guess not, just a Tom Tom issue. After understanding the platforms more I get it now but still disappointing with Tom Tom though. Thanks for shedding light on this issue, Im gna try to contact Tom Tom and see what theyll say but I dont think ill get anywhere to be honest since previous users have requested the same map on there forums with no feedback.
 
Yeah, I can see the confusion now. We were just glad that they finally backed off of the restrictions in '09. It was bad for navigation, and no fun for geocachers, either!

I understand why you'd be disappointed that they never went back and revisited the maps for the earlier devices, though as I say, since no civilian in Egypt would have been allowed a GPS prior to 2009, I understand why they didn't bother for Nav2 devices - the very last of that series was just coming out in 2009/2010. It may have taken them a couple of years to get a good set of maps put together, but you would have thought that Nav3 devices would have had them some time later after those started to be released to the market in 2010.

The streets and roads from Cairo/Giza all the way up to the Mediterranean Sea are pretty crazy -- certainly not some pretty 20th century grid system -- so I would imagine that good maps would be very important to anyone dealing with taxis.
 
If I bought that bigger map for any device from the website would my tom tom home install it on the Carninat SD card and work? I wonder if anyone has tried that before. I dont think that would work because it was made for a different platform but im desprate for a solution..... what can i say!
 
If I bought that bigger map for any device from the website would my tom tom home install it on the Carninat SD card and work? I wonder if anyone has tried that before. I dont think that would work because it was made for a different platform but im desprate for a solution..... what can i say!
No, not going to work. Over the years, the way map data has been formatted has changed. The content of a map for a new Nav4 device would be completely unintelligible to a Nav2 device. That's why they don't offer that as a solution on their web page if you bring up the map shop and tell them you have a Carminat unit.
 

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