Slashdot Mirror
Cellphone Banking Helping To Fight Poverty In India
An anonymous reader writes "Technology Review is running an in-depth story about the way cellphone banking is transforming the lives of many poor people in India. By enabling users to manage a legitimate bank account and finance micro-loans, cellphones are a major force of social and economic change. It's perhaps not surprising, given that despite widespread poverty, India has the world's fastest-growing cellphone market and the second largest number of cellphone users (after China). The article mentions one Indian start-up, mChek, that is thriving as a result. There's also an excellent video report."
> why someone can't offer a similar price structure in the United States?
Companies charge what the market will bear. There's no single value for what a one minute phone call costs. There's enough difference in cost of electricity, oil to drive around to fix broken transmitters, disposible income of the people paying for the calls etc. In the UK stolen phones end up in the third world because they have cheap calls but expensive phones. In the UK handsets are generally free with a 12/18 month contract (so you get 2 new phones every 2 or 3 years) but the calls are expensive.
At least in India there's some chance of the customer having some chance of understanding what the fuck the guy in the service centre is saying. Whenever I phone customer service it's like I'm tuning into some Bollywood soap opera on a short wave radio set - a mixture of childs vocabulary and grown up jargon.
Last I checked India was still in the caste system, where upward mobility is not encouraged and not really possible.
21st Century Renaissance Man
I keep waiting for the Slashdot trolls to come out with their standard response to India stories - "Why are they doing when they cant feed themselves" Incidentally when I worked in Europe I never saw a beggar (guess the dole works). Not so in Toronto and Austin. Austin beggars are passive except on Guadalupe where they can give the pushiest Indian beggar good competition. But the funniest beggar I saw was the one sitting outside the McDonalds in downtown Toronto with a 'Change please' sign. Whenever he had enough change he would go in and get a burger and come back outside (rinse,lather,repeat). So yeah there are people who cant afford to eat in the US and Canada too - thats what happens in capitalist countries and India is capitalist too.
**Life is too short to be serious**
oh, person can't speak against complex social problem like slavery or a caste system, because it's existed for thousands of years and that venerates it? sounds like "son of a dot-head" talk to me.