MCJ 401: Communication and

Information Technologies

Seventh Semester 2022

Mass Communication and Journalism

University of Dhaka
Topic: Mobile communication in the
global South
 Cell Phone is Global!

• By end of 2015, there were more than 7 billion mobile cellular subscriptions,
corresponding to a penetration rate of 97%, up from 738 million in 2000.

• Between 2000-2015, global Internet penetration grew 7 fold from 6.5% to 43%. [ITU,
2015]

• In Bangladesh, as of October 2021, the total number of mobile phone subscribers is 181.32
million. [BTRC, 2022]

• The total number of Internet subscribers has reached 129.18 million at the end of
October, 2021. Of them, 94 million subscribers use the Internet on mobile phones. [BTRC,
2022]
• The number of landline telephones is falling. [global penetration rate
12.4% globally in 2018]

• There are now more mobile phones in the developing world than in the
developed world.

• For the vast majority of people in the global North, the mobile phone
emerged as an extension of the pre-existing landline network.

• However, people living in other parts of the world had only minimal
access to telecommunications until the arrival of the mobile phone
(Maitland, 1984).
The first mobile phones

5
The first mobile phones

6
Smart phones

7
 What do we do with mobile phones?
• We talk;
• We write and send texts;
• We play games;
• We use it as a clock and stop watch;
• We use for taking notes;
• It is used to give us reminders;
• We use it as a camera (still photographs and video);
• It is used as a mirror;
• It is used as a music player;
• It is used for satellite navigation;
 What do we do with mobile phones?
• We use it as a calculator;
• For mobile banking;
• For checking weather;
• For academic activities;
• For watching TV and listening to radio;
• For watching movies and sports;
• For browsing the Web;
• For social networking;
• We use it as a voice recorder;
• For sending and receiving emails and so on.
 Mobile communication in the global South

• We will have to understand the dynamics of adoption and appropriation

and the consequences of these practices locally and globally.

• The mobile phone affects life at the macro and micro level.

• From negotiations of gender in public and private to the trajectories of

development that are realized in the everyday struggles to communicate,
there is no question that the device has changed daily life for billions of
people in the global South.
 Mobile communication in the global South

• Has access, adoption or appropriation of the mobile phone realized the

possibilities of ‘development’ that governments, non-governmental
organizations and, increasingly, corporations aspired to create? [e-purji case:
https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-165889]

• Has access to communication and information liberated the underprivileged

groups/communities? [women, for example?]

• Has the mobile helped to expand social, financial and political networks or
does its value lie in its capacity to develop social cohesion?
 Mobile communication in the global South

• We should see how this new communication technology intersects with, changes
and makes more visible existing social relations.

• New programs such as M-Pesa in Kenya, bKash in Bangladesh, the

m-health/telemedicine initiatives of different agencies (Tonic-GP) and a wide
range of mobile information diffusion projects have all illustrated the potential of
mobile phones to be utilized as instruments of development.

• The motivation to have a mobile phone is not the result of a centrally planned
development initiative, but it is simply individuals adopting technology that
makes sense to them and helps them with the arrangement of their daily affairs.
 Mobile communication in the global South

• The mobile phone results in the tightening of social cohesion among the
closest friends and family. There is a corresponding decrease in the social
links for those outside of these groups.

• Mobile communication supports interaction with core members of the

social sphere while it also distances people who are outside this sphere.

• Therefore, mobile telephony does not expand social sphere but rather
intensifies our social networks.
• Mobile telephony places women in a broader flow of events and gives
them the ability to enlarge their sphere of interaction.

• The mobile phone gives women some advantages in terms of finding jobs
and maintaining contact with peers. Yet, it is also a channel through which
employers can surveil and harass the women, practices that reinforce
patriarchal power relationships.

• The mobile phone cannot bring revolutionary changes in daily life, but
rather users’ activities can be adjusted and re-shaped by access to mobile
communication.