Oxfam worker holding his mobile phone, Mali Photo: Crispin Hughes/Oxfam

 

Mobile Phones
around the World

Life before mobiles

Less than two decades ago, people in many developing countries often had to spend more than a day making a short phone call. Most people did not (and still do not) have a phone at home.

Public phones would be available in post offices and telephone exchanges in the capital city and a few other large towns. People who lived in the country would have to spend hours travelling - perhaps by bush taxi, or by hitching lifts on trucks - to the city.

They would then have to book a call from the person behind the counter, and would have to wait, perhaps for several hours, before the operator had arranged their call. They could then get a brief connection to the number they wanted, and have a short chat on a bad line, before making the long journey home.

An aid worker based in Sierra Leone in the 1980s says, 'I had to take two days off in order to make a phone call home.'

Mobiles in the developing world

Mobile phones have changed the way many international and local organisations in developing countries work, making communications much easier and far less time-consuming.

Some local people have also benefited from mobile phones. In general, it is cheaper and easier to get a mobile than a landline. This is because telephone companies often do not have enough landlines available, and there are long waiting lists. It can take a year or so to get a line installed, and it is very expensive. The advent of the mobile phone means that some organisations and people who couldn't have afforded landlines can communicate using mobiles.

However, there is often no coverage outside the larger towns, which means that people there might have to rely on satellite phones (which are more expensive) and two-way radios. Furthermore, mobile phones are often too expensive for ordinary people to use.

The question of how mobile phones affect the developing world is a complex one. Cellphones have brought some clear benefits, but not to everyone.

Disaster relief

Oxfam workers based in some parts of the world have found that mobile phones have made it much easier for them to reach people in need, when they have to respond to a disaster or an emergency.

Photo: Howard Davies/Oxfam

During the severe flooding in Mozambique in 2000, mobiles were used to help organise rescue, food, and shelter for people stranded by the floods. They also eased communication during the earthquakes in El Salvador and Gujarat, India.

Mobiles have also been used to help refugees contact relatives to reassure them that they are safe.

Here young Kosovans in a refugee camp in Macedonia are using a borrowed mobile to let their relatives know that they are safe.

What do you think?

• How do mobile phones affect people in developing countries and our relationship with them?

• Does mobile phone technology mean more people can have access to a phone?

• Does the fact that we can now communicate more easily with people mean that the world will be a safer and more peaceful place?

• What rules and regulations, if any, do we need to introduce as technology spreads across the globe?
  

Find out more

To find out more about mobile phones in general, search for 'mobile phone' on the site of any reputable newspaper or periodical, or to search the BBC News site click on http://news.bbc.co.uk (search for 'mobile phone').