I just returned from a trip to India and this time I had the opportunity to travel to a bunch of different villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. I had read about how cell phone usage in the villages in India had reached amazing numbers but was still taken by surprise when I saw for myself what this really meant. First pleasant surprise was that I was able to stay in constant touch with my family back in Boston. So whether it was from the train chugging along through small stations in Andhra Pradesh or from a hole-in-the-wall eating place along the road to a remote village, I was able to pull out my Blackberry and be greeted by 5 strong lines on the signal indicator. And my family sat in cold Boston and read my messages like "enjoying some really tasty breakfast and hot coffee for <50 cents in a little tea stall along the river..." or "got off at a pretty little station to stretch my legs but got to run back in as the train stops only for 5 mins". Quite different from when I look down at my Blackberry in the town of developed Belmont, MA and consider myself lucky if I can see 3 lines! Makes you wonder what developed really means!
When I got to the small village of Challapalli along the Godavari river I looked at the farm workers who had stopped by to say hello. None of them wore slippers, their hands looked like farm workers hands do, they wore simple, minimal cotton clothing but almost all the adults had a cell phone either in their hands or peeping out of their shirt pockets. With this phone they could make a call to Boston if they wanted - not that they knew anyone but me and they did not have my number. And I did not know how to tell them that if they called me on my cell phone chances were I would not be able to receive their call because of a weak signal in America - they would never believe me if I said the land of plenty had poor cell phone coverage!
The villagers were using their cell phones for everything, and I mean everything. The house I went to was an old house that had no running water so I asked for a bucket of water to use the bathroom and sure enough someone pulled out their cell phone, spoke hurriedly into it and a little boy appeared with a bucket of water. News that we had arrived traveled to the paddy fields before we could tour the fields. I expressed a desire for a drink of tender coconut and it arrived thanks to the cell phone. If for some reason the cell phone tower went down, I have no idea how the villages would continue to function. Their dependance on cell phones is unimaginable.The funniest thing is in a lot of cases these people communicate without even answering their phones - just by letting the phones ring so the receiver could see who they had 'missed' calls from! I'm sure the operators are making only half the potential profits thanks to the missed call signaling.
What I saw was the cell phone becoming part of everyday living but what I heard was that it was a powerful tool for the farmers who could now increase prices as they received calls on increased demand, or the fishermen who would decide where to come ashore on the long coast based on local market demands for fish. But the sad part here is that fewer people are using their phones for matching supply-demand or profit increasing strategies and more are using them for mundane everyday things. I think what is now needed is not new applications for the cell phones but some simple classes or tips to these people on what their cell phone can really do for them. If that is not done quickly the power of the cell phone will stay at being just a simple communication tool.
