Slashdot Mirror
Bringing Cell Phones To the Third World
An anonymous reader tips a story about Denis O'Brien, a mobile phone entrepreneur whose goal is to spread cell phones throughout third-world countries. Quoting:
"...O'Brien keeps pouring money into the world's poorest, most violent countries. His bet: Give phones to the masses and they'll fight your enemies for you. ...In Trinidad & Tobago, where the state mobile phone firm was dragging its feet on connecting Digicel calls to its own customers, O'Brien harangued government officials to speed things up, even phoning one Christmas night to complain. After the launch the state firm started dropping Digicel calls anyway, making its new competitor look bad. O'Brien took his case to the people, taking out ads in T&T's papers listing life 'Before Digicel' and 'After Digicel' and held a press conference. The state firm eventually relented. In its first four months Digicel bagged 600,000 customers and is narrowing the gap now with the state in market share."
I think we often see these things as a modern luxury and forget the actual utility they can provide.
Let's not forget how adequate a cell phone is as a status symbol: a small, expensive toy that is paraded in public view during normal use.
Cells stopped fulfilling the status-symbol role in the western world (for the most part *), which returned to more traditional things like jeweleries and sport cars.
But in a country where the poor people live on a few dollars a month, a 50$ toy is an excellent status symbol.
*) You know what I'm iTalking iAbout iHere.
Don't be racist, jerk/douche.
What's gotten into you?
sincerely,
Jiggle Fuck
sincerely,
General Douche