Cell Phones + Development = ?

NY Times
Magazine
Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?
By SARA CORBETT
Published: April 13, 2008
Why a corporate “user anthropologist” is spending so much of his time in the shantytowns of the world.


I found this story fascinating. I had heard that cell phones were great in developing countries, because they give the people in those countries the ability to communicate, without the costs associated with traditional land lines and the difficulties of tracking people down for monthly payments. This story, however, introduces a couple of ideas. Perhaps the most interesting is how the cell phone acts as a "fixed identity point." Regardless of where you are and what you are doing (for a good example, see the anthropologist this story covers) those who know your number can contact you with minimal expense and effort. Knowing someone's cell phone number is really the only thing you need beyond knowing them in order to maintain a connection regardless of where your individual lives take you.

Beyond that initial idea, the uses people in developing countries are finding for cell phones are incredible. Check out the part of the story where they discuss mobile banking and how people are using airtime for cell phones as a way of transferring funds to family and friends in distant locales. I also enjoyed how people would use SMS messages to keep in touch when governments shut down public media or during power failures. You've also got physicians in remote areas texting hospitals in more established regions for help in treating a particular patient.

Finally, the story raises the question of what will happen when the other 3 billion people on the planet have access to cell phones. The quantity of people is so great that even minute changes in individual circumstances will have huge aggregate effects. It will be interesting to see if companies in the mobile telecom markets can produce phones that are durable, affordable, and useful for those earning less that $4 per day.