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."

Comments

Lethal Phones?

[bigtallmofo]

His bet: Give phones to the masses and they'll fight your enemies for you

I'm not sure I understand this. Do these phones shoot lasers or something?

Interesting.

[BitterOldGUy]

The Caribbean operations backing his bonds just announced US$505 million in operating profit (earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation), double the year-earlier figure, on US$1.6 billion in revenue for the year ended in March.

And if you subtract the interest, is the company still making a profit? Red flag: mentioning Operating profit as opposed to profit.

Another red flag: In April O'Brien was in the midst of a five-day, four-country visit (via his Gulfstream G550) to keep tabs on his assets.

Interesting. A private jet.

He's in poverty stricken countries. He's grabbing lots of market share as fast as he can with dubious earnings potential (what? will he take a chicken as payment if these poverty stricken folks can't pay?). He's doing all of this with other people's money.

Does that sound like another business plan we've heard of? Maybe 7 or 8 years ago?

Cell phones???

[iminplaya]

It's easier to get a damn cell phone than it is to get clean water.

Re:That's what they need

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Cause that's what they need...cell phones. Nevermind the maniacs running those countries...

The fact that cells are routinely disabled in areas where heads of state make public appearances is evidence that enabling communication between regular people is a threat to the people who run/own a country.

Re:That's what they need

[Chuck Chunder]

Good communication can help struggling economies a lot.

I think we often see these things as a modern luxury and forget the actual utility they can provide.

I remember an example given by Muhammad Yunus in Banker to the Poor where a woman used to waste a day walking to the next village to pick up some raw materials, only to find out when she got there that they weren't ready yet. A whole days productivity wasted because she had no way of knowing without actually going to check. A cell phone (shared by the village) changed that.

Lack of infrastructure

[Vinegar Joe]

The introduction of cheap cell phones kills any incentive for the government to push any landlines (or upgrade those already existing) outside of the main cities. Without landlines, there's no internet. A good example is is Bali, Indonesia. Bali is one of the most advanced (and richest areas of Indonesia) and yet in many areas just 3 miles outside of the main cities there are no landlines and no internet. There's also very, very spotty cell coverage. If say, you have a small guesthouse or crafts company, there's no way you can advertise or communicate with your customers.