Mobile Phones and New Media: Offering Developing

Worlds a Fighting Chance

Bianca Pollard
14 November 2013
INTS 2302 - Global Issues

Introduction
The developing world has seen a dramatic growth in mobile phone coverage over the past
ten years, more rapidly and seamlessly than any other technology. While once thought of as a
luxury, the mobile phone is now, in many places, a need. This has led many researchers and
governments to raise optimistic outcomes concerning the future of even the more rural parts of
states. In this essay, the impact of these phones and the new media will be analyzed for their role,
whether primarily effective or not, based on specific case studies and the research produced
within the last few years. Their results will be discussed in three main sections: the relationships
between people, dealing with topics like business, and economic; the cultural relationship that
deals with the power structure and social benefits; and the relationships between the government,
private sectors, and even international parties.

Mobile Phones Serve Developing Countries Best

Unlike in the United States, where everyone started with a landline before moving to the
revolutionary cell phone once it became cheaper and more accessible, people in developing
countries have skipped over what has been the traditional sequence of telecommunications,
primarily due to the mobile phones accessibility and service reliability1. The issue with landlines
is that they are often not available in rural areas, take months to install, and are expensive.
According to an economics study in 2003, Kenyan firms would often wait 100 days to obtain
service, and even then most would end up paying enormous bribes.

1 Goggin, Gerard; Clark, Jacqueline. Mobile Phones and Community Development:

A Contact Zone between Media and Citizenship. Development in Practice Vol. 19,
No. 4/5, 585-597. Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 2009. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27752097
Accessed November 13, 2013.

Unfortunately, the struggle didnt end theremaintaining a reliable signal was difficult,
and businesses often suffered from periodic disconnections, some lasting 37 hours2. Computers
are necessary in developed areas, especially in schools, but are widely unattainable for the poor
in rural areas. In Mobile Phones: Uplifting Weak and Failed States, the authors explain the
widespread use of the mobile phone over these other technologies (particularly surprising when
considering it cost the average Kenyan half his or her monthly wages) was due to the demand for
some reliable telecommunication device3.

The Rural Farmer: Better Markets Improve Profits

One of the most optimistically regarded consequences of mobile phone technology is its ability
to help people start or improve small businesses. In Kerala, India, fish is a staple food which
most adults eat at least once a day4. Even so, fishermen were not making very good money. They
were confined to their local market because of several factors, including the expense and risk
associated with transporting the catch to an unknown market, their unfamiliarity with the
fluctuating market prices since they stayed out at sea, and no affordable method of storing the
fish. As a result, much would go to waste.

2 Aker, Jenny C.; Mbiti, Isaac M. Mobile Phones and Economic Development in
Africa. The Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 24, No. 3, 207-232. American
Economic Association, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20799163 Accessed
November 13, 2013.
3 Rotberg, Robert I.; Aker, Jenny C. When States Fail: Causes and Consequences.
New York: Princeton University Press, 2003.
4 Jensen, Robert. The Digital Provide: Information (Technology), Market
Performance, and Welfare in the South Indian Fisheries Sector. The Quarterly
Journal of Economics Vol. 122, No. 3, 879-924. Oxford University Press, August 2007.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25098864 Accessed November 13, 2013.

Information and communication technologies, referred to as simply ICTs, solve this market crisis
by providing fisherman better information on markets, and therefore a chance to profit. While
this might have inflated the cost of purchasing fish for the locals, research has shown that just the
opposite happens: according to the study in Kerala, fishermen's profits increased on average by
8 percent while the consumer price declined by 4 percent and consumer surplus in sardine
consumption increased by 6 percent.5 The study also emphasized that this data was collected as
a result of one simple interventionthe mobile phone. In addition to increasing profits, the
fisherman also eliminated waste completely.
Another example of technology working in favor of the worker is in Kenya, where the iCow

Education and the Role of Women

A study in Niger, one of the poorest states in Africa, showed that adults who used mobile
phones learned to read better than adults who did not6. Computer programs, while sometimes
very successful for school-aged children, are costly, require special programs, and do not help
adult learners. This study was conducted to combat the frequently empty schools made to
educate adult Nigerians and improve the literacy rate in unstable states.
In China, the move to the urban cities for jobs mimics the kind during the Industrial Revolution,
and women are on the frontier.
5 Jensen, Robert. The Digital Provide: Information (Technology), Market
Performance, and Welfare in the South Indian Fisheries Sector. The Quarterly
Journal of Economics Vol. 122, No. 3, 879-924. Oxford University Press, August 2007.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25098864 Accessed November 13, 2013.
6 Lybbert, Travis J.; Aker, Jenny C.; Ksoll Christopher. Can Mobile Phones Improve
Learning? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Niger. American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics Vol. 4, No. 4, 94-120. American Economic Journal, October 2012.
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.4.4.94. Accessed November
13, 2013.

Fair Elections and Transparent Governments

Uttar Pradesh in India has the particular advantage when it comes to revolutionizing the
political world. Although known for its hierarchy and corrupted elections, India began to change
in the mid-1990s when the people (generally of higher status) began voting with cell phone
messages7. Since then, the number of cell phones in India has escalated tremendously from 20
million to 200 million phones in 2007, and the number grows still. The masses, formerly divided
among people who could vote freely and people who feared leaving their houses, can use their
phones to vote and work around the system, increasing the potential for fairly-conducted
elections.
Many developing governments acknowledge the prospective good that more mobile network
coverage and phone accessibility has on keeping up with the rest of the world. For example,
Kenya issued government-funded phones to the public .

The Future of the Digital Age

In light of the many positive changes cell phones bring to the developing world, it also
has the potential to bring what Westerners already face. In their book The New Digital Age, Eric
Schmidt and Jared Cohen consider the trade-offs: security, privacy, freedoms, to name a few.

7 Jeffrey, Robin; Doron, Assa. Mobile-izing: Democracy, Organization and India's First Mass
Mobile Phone Elections. The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 71, No. 1, 63-80. December 2011.