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''' NOISY [BILLION.3] GEEKS '''
BUYING A CELL PHONE was the wisest $20 Ranvir Singh, and Torab Khan, ever spent.
Mr Ranvir Singh, a farmer in the north Indian state of Uttar Pardesh, and Torab Khan, a farmer from the KPK province of Pakistan, used to make appointments, in person, in advance, to deliver fresh buffalo milk to their clients.
Now, their clients/customers just call when they want to change the quantity or the time and place of delivery. Mr. Singh's income has risen by 27% and Torab Khan's by 24%.
And
they have both heard rumours of even more bountiful technology. They
have heard that ''something on mobile phones'' can tell them the
current market price of their wheat.
Mr.Singh and Torab
Khan, doesn't know that ''something'' is the Internet, because
like most Indians and Pakistanis, they have never seen or used it
before. But the phones in their calloused hands hints at hundreds of
millions of people in emerging markets- just about over a billion now,
will one day log on.
In 2010, only 81 million Indians [7% of the population] regularly used the internet. But brutal price wars meant that 507 million owned mobile phones. Calls used to cost as little as $0.006 per minute.
Indian operators even at the time, such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications were signing up 20 million new subscribers a month.
In
other developing countries, too, there are many more mobile phones than
Internet connections. In Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Indonesia
{the so-called BRICI countries}, there are 610 million regular Internet users but-
A staggering 1.8 billion mobile-phone connections, according to the Boston Consulting Group [BCG]. In a report called ''The Internet's New Billion'', BCG predicts that by 2015 there will be 1.3 billion Internet users in these countries -dwarfing the total in America and Japan.
These new internet users will mostly log on via their mobile phones. This tends to be cheaper and easier than other option. In Brazil, fixed line broadbands
is often prohibitively expensive; in Russia, where it can be much
cheaper, it is often unavailable. In India where infrastructure is
always a headache, it is hard to get a good basic landline, let alone a broadband.
Poor people seldom have personal computers. In the BRICI countries, whose combined population is more than 3 billion, there are only 440m PCs. Many people use internet cafes, but these are inaccessible to rural folk. A connection in your pocket is far more convenient.
Hordes of Indians have started using their mobiles to access the internet with third-generation 3G services, which allow the subscribers to access the web. As early as 2010, Kunal Bajaj, Indian director of Analysys Mason, a British consultancy-
Expected
the-take-up to be as fast and as revolutionary -as it has been for
mobile phones: ''The Telecoms companies have seen what happens when they
drop prices. They had already tasted blood. The price wars are just as
aggressive,'' he says.
The
Mobile Internet could be even more powerful. The unemployed would
search for jobs online. Farmers in remote area will find customised
advice on crop-planting.
The drawback of the
Internet is that you have to be literate to use it. That is a huge
problem in Pakistan, India, and many, many African countries -where the
literacy is problem is heart breaking -less than 60%.
In China and Russia it is over 90%.
Mr.Singh, the farmer, alongwith Mr Torab khan from Pakistan, cannot read, so they cannot send text messages. They often need help dialling numbers correctly, too.
With
respectful dedication to all the Mobile phone companies of the world.
See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society
Computers-Internet-Wireless:
''' Bottom-Up Battle '''
Good Night and God bless
SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless
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