Mobile Phones and the Digital Divide

In this PCWorld article, author Ken Banks focuses on mobile phones and the digital divide. Banks describes the field of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D ) as fragmented and often misunderstood, and suggests ways that it might focus more specifically on closing the digital divide.

The list of reasons that mobile phones are helping close the digital divide includes:

• mobile phones are relatively cheap, small, portable, have good battery life, provide instant voice communications;
• have short messaging service (SMS) functionality at the very least, and potential to provide access to the internet;
  
• "hundreds of millions of some of the [economically] poorest members of society either own one or have access to one."
  

In the developed world, there is extensive connectivity and higher functionality in mobile phones (photography and photo sharing, for example). However, Banks explores whether developing world phone users have the same level of functionality. He first looks at the functions of the most-often-seen-in-the-developing-world mobile brand, the Nokia 1100. "... they're sturdy with a sealed keypad, have good battery life, the user interface is easy, and they're cheap (originally selling for around US$40 new, for example, but now available for easily half of that in second-hand markets). They do everything the user wants: They can make and receive calls, they have an address book, they can send and receive SMS, and the built-in alarm is very popular." However, as reported here, this model has "no browser of any kind and doesn't support GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or any other form of data transmission [including internet interface]." As for extent and quality of access, other problems recognised here are: "Network coverage in many rural areas lacks data support even if the phones did have it, although this is admittedly changing. There are also issues of language and content but, more importantly, cost. Someone with little spare income doesn't want to spend a large chunk of it scratching around the Web to find what he or she is looking for. In many countries, GPRS pricing models are, at best, confusing. While an SMS carries a fixed cost, calculating how many kilobytes of data make up a Web page is anybody's guess."

Because of manufacturers' and network providers’ focus on providing mobile access at low cost, "[t]his current reality sees many of these phones with no GPRS, no browser, no Java, no camera, no colour screen - the very technologies that form the linchpin of our plans to promote the mobile phone as the tool to help close the digital divide." Banks suggests that a step in closing the digital divide would be diverting international development funding toward providing a subsidised, fully internet-ready handset for developing markets. "Network coverage, important as it is, is only part of the equation. From the perspective of the digital divide, who's addressing the handset issue other than companies responding to market forces (which I've already argued are often more fixed on price)?"

Banks is encouraged by signs of increasing change from within the digital developer community, particularly in countries like Kenya. To help solve the digital divide, a trend of mobile development initiatives moving from voice to data transmission may have potential.