When I think of Africa and telecommunications, the first thing I think of is spam , but an episode of In business (the beeb are now offering mp3s on ‘Listen Again’ instead of just Realplayer, happily) got me thinking again.
few key points :
- the remotest parts of Kenya have the fastest takeup of mobile phone usage. (apparently basestations are maxxed out the minute they’re installed)
- SMS was seen as more cost-effective than talk
- very low-income users would share a phone rental to keep up to date on market prices around the local area (which apparently vary a lot)
- the price puts nobody off. For remote users, telecom is a faster alternative to a truck ride
This is totally back-asswards to the UK, where a mobile is a luxury/convenience or a PDA wannabe. Got me thinking about the Australian outback with the whole ‘Flying Doctor’ / ‘School of the Air’ remoteness of it.
One of the nice things about living on a dinky island like Britain is that the closest we come to ‘information deserts’ is the few chunks of the UK where you can’t get broadband….