Mobile phones and the digital divide

Tag : mobile phone tool

Whether you're building an application for the 3G iPhone in theUnited States or trying to figure out how to deliver healthinformation via SMS (Short Message Service) to a rural community inBotswana, the mobile space is diverse and exciting in equalmeasure. It touches on more fields than you could throw a phone at:anthropology, appropriate technology, electronics, programming,telecommunications, geography, literacy, gender and poverty to namea few. It's this diversity that makes it so exciting. Yet, at thesame time, it's this same diversity that presents us with many ofour greatest challenges. In many ways, the mobile world --particularly in the ICT4D (ICT for Development) field -- isfragmented and often misunderstood.
There are many reasons for this, but for now, I'm going toconcentrate on one important aspect: mobile phones and the digitaldivide.
While developed markets get excited by the iPhone, N95, BlackBerry,3G, WiMax and Android, in developing countries, most excitementcenters around the proliferation of mobile phones -- any phones --into poorer rural, communication-starved areas and their potentialto help close the digital divide. Handset giants such as Nokia andMotorola believe that mobile devices will "close the digital dividein a way the PC never could." Industry bodies such as the GSMAssociation run their own "Bridging the Digital Divide" initiative,and international development agencies such as USAID pump hundredsof millions of dollars into economic, health and educationalinitiatives based around mobile technology. With so many big namesinvolved, what could possibly go wrong?
To answer this, I think we need to go back to basics and ask whatwe really mean when we talk about mobiles helping close the digitaldivide. Clearly, mobile phones are relatively cheap (when comparedto personal or laptop computers, anyway). They are small andportable, have good battery life, provide instant voicecommunications, have SMS functionality at the very least, and theyhave the potential to provide access to the Internet. What's more,hundreds of millions of some of the poorest members of societyeither own one or have access to one. No other two-waycommunications technology comes close. (Radio, which is a hugelyrelevant and influential channel, is obviously only one-way).
I've been lucky over the past few years to have spoken at numerousconferences, workshops and company offices about the uses of mobiletechnology in international conservation and development, and it'ssomething I truly enjoy doing. But the more I do, the more I see awidening knowledge, or awareness, gap. In the West, when we talk ofmobiles helping close the digital divide, many people make a hugeassumption about the technologies available to users in developingcountries. We look at the mobile through rose-tinted glasses fromthe top of our ivory towers, through a Western prism or the lens ofa 3G iPhone. Call it what you like.
Think about it: Most of us have fancy phones (many own two orthree) and are gifted with pretty good network coverage to drivethem. Not only can we make calls; we can take good quality photos,edit little movies and upload them to the Web, find the nearestcinema, surf the Web and play neat games, find out if any friendsare close by, and download neat bits of software. Our overallexperience is generally a pleasant one. Why else would we want aphone?
With mobiles able to do all of this, you'd have thought that theirpotential in developing countries would be clear, right? Well,maybe. Or maybe not...
Let's start by looking at one of the world's best selling phones --perhaps surprisingly the Nokia 1100. Anyone who's spent any time ina developing country recently wouldn't have failed to notice thenumber of these around. The reason? They're Nokia (and people justseem to love Nokia), they're sturdy with a sealed keypad, have goodbattery life, the user interface is easy, and they're cheap(originally selling for around US$40 new, for example, but nowavailable for easily half of that in second-hand markets). They doeverything the user wants: They can make and receive calls, theyhave an address book, they can send and receive SMS, and thebuilt-in alarm is very popular. (During a recent trip to Kampala,my taxi driver was telling me with great excitement how his alarmstill sounds, even when his phone is switched off.) These are thekinds of phones in the hands of many people in the very rural areaswhere we see the mobile as the tool to help close the digitaldivide. Things are slowly changing, but "slow" is the operativeword here.