Mobiles preconference at 58th annual meeting of the International Communication Association
May 24th, 2008
beeping/miss calls, conferences, microenterprise
Time flies! Apparently I’ve been making occasional dispatches to this blog for a whole year now. One of my very first posts was on last year’s ICA.
I want to thank Rich Ling, Scott Campbell and Jan Fernback for organizing a very successful pre-conference workshop on globalization and development issues surrounding mobile telephony. Though a big conference like ICA has its own rewards, it is great to have a full day-and-a-half dedicated to contiguous sessions on mobile society/mobile theory. After a great keynote by Jim Katz, the conversations built on each other as the sessions progressed.
The agenda is here, including some links to full papers. Notable papers in the mobiles and development genre included Harsha de Silva from LIRNEasia on perceptions of the impacts of mobile on livelihoods among BOP users, from Hana Cecelie Geirbo of Telenor on missed calls in Bangadesh, from Araba Sey on the decline of the informal mobile payphone in Ghana, and from Patricia Mechael on her work on mobiles and health in Egypt.
I presented a work-in-progress—A typology of mobile uses among small and informal businesses. By re-surveying the existing literature on the issue, I argue that:
Current evidence suggests that within the small and informal business (MSE) sector, benefits of mobile use accrue mostly (but not exclusively) to existing enterprises, in ways which amplify and accelerate material and informational flows, rather than fundamentally transforming them.
This is not to say that I think the mobile is not a huge boon to small enterprise. Rather, I just emphasize that it is (mostly) a boon in the same way that a landline would be, were it more affordable. The research literature available (so far) suggests that the majority of small and informal businesses use mobiles to serve existing customers, coordinate with existing partners and supplies, and check prices amongst existing alternatives and sources, rather than to replace middlemen, recruit new customers, or start new enterprises.
6 Responses
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Srinivas May 25, 2008 at 4:23 am
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jdonner May 25, 2008 at 6:11 am
Araba Sey’s paper “where have all the payphones gone?” at this preconference touched on some of these themes…as the costs of maintaining a personal handset continue to decline (cheaper hardware, plus airtime which can be shared phone-to-phone), she sees, at least in Ghana, that many former payphone users have shifted to mobile ownership.
But what do you mean by limited access? Just that the the number of minutes is limited by the value stored in the account, or something else?
A very good recent study of PCO use in rural areas is by Souter, et. al (2005).
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Srinivas May 25, 2008 at 8:21 am
I was referring to the validity, based on my experiences about 3 yrs back. The mobile pre paid number can no longer receive calls once the validity of that SIM card lapses. So the phone can’t be used to receive calls regularly. Unlike this, a land phone available at my home (by which the reference is to the BSNL phone connections in rural areas) can be used to receive calls, for say about Rs 125/- and gives up to 60 local calls free. It is mostly used for receiving calls, or as an address. These days however, the mobile call rates have come down, and land phone is no longer that attractive, so I guess the consumer behavior may differ.
Someone referred to the shared access models of telecommunications like PCO booths with Telecenters (say eSeva in Andhra Pradesh) as a process of creative destruction. In Andhra Pradesh, there was a conscious move to convert the STD/PCO Booths into RSDPs (Rural Service Delivery Points) which are scaled down versions of eSeva models. I wanted to know your views on such description. Thanks for directing me to the Souter Study.
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Srinivas May 25, 2008 at 9:26 am
Someone referred to the replacement of shared access models of telecommunications like PCO booths with Telecenters (say eSeva in Andhra Pradesh) as a process of creative destruction. In Andhra Pradesh, there was a conscious move to convert the STD/PCO Booths into RSDPs (Rural Service Delivery Points) which are scaled down versions of eSeva models. I wanted to know your views on such description.
Thanks for directing me to the Souter Study. But, I am unable to download it the full report from the link.
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jdonner May 25, 2008 at 2:43 pm
For the Souter study, try this link as well: http://www.telafrica.org/
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[...] Jonathon Donner mentions , there is a distinct value to discussing related papers among a group of like-minded researchers [...]
Hi Jonathan,
How can the impact of mobile diffusion in the rural land scape on the STD-PCO Booths which democratized telecommunication access before the 90′s be understood? Today, a pre paid connection comes with limited access, unlike a PCO booth which imposes no such restrictions. Indeed, there were times when people used missed calls to get a mobile persons to speak to them from the nearest PCO Booth, where the call rates are cheaper.
-Srinivas