Telecom
H
ow could something so small have so much transformative power! If the biblical mustard seed was looking for any adversary, it is safe to say that it has found one in the mobile phone. The mobile phone of course did not start small; it was the size of a brick all those decades back. Now, it is lean, slick and downright reliable. Its attributes have endeared themselves to us to the point that we cannot dare sleep without it next to our beds. Many things have made us cuddle our mobile phones. We can make/receive phone calls, send/receive text messages, send/receive money, make payments, browse the Internet, send/receive emails, search the web, listen to music, visit social networks, take pictures, chat, and play games thanks to the mobile phone. The mobile phone, what would we do without it! Nothing, from the looks of it. The dying breed that is people without mobile phones faces an existential threat. Nowadays, we cannot go that long without checking or using or mobile phones. Even when we are at the dining table, we cannot seem to put our mobile phones down. In the matatus, we are either typing a message or playing one of those inexplicably addictive games. Not all of us have the resources to buy smartphones, but this has not put a damper on us as there are many cheap phones on the markets to keep our fingers busy. The raft of mobile telephony service providers in the country has allowed a third of Uganda’s 34 millionstrong population to be cellular carriers. Fine, most of these mobile phones are widely shared, but it is plain to see that mobility has been accelerated. Nothing, of course, best captures the embodiment of the aforesaid mobility and just how Ugandans have developed an intimate relationship with their mo-
The mobile phone, what would we do without it! Nothing, from the looks of it. The dying breed that is people without mobile phones faces an existential threat. bile phones as does mobile money. A facet that allows one to make money transactions using their phone, mobile money uptake has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception in 2009. Money transactions carried out using mobile money annually rake trillions of Ugandan shillings. It counts for much that you did not need to have a smartphone to be a user or beneficiary of a mobile money transaction. In fact, one of the thematic strands of Ugandan mobile apps is that they have a subtle textured finish that allows non smartphone holders to be partakers. For instance, if Orange is your mobile service provider, you gain social networking access to Facebook “using any phone without Internet” if you dial *155#. The Ka-phone Facebook app is what makes all of this possible. The app’s offerings cost Shs 400 for a day’s (24 hour) access and Shs 2500 for access straddling seven days. What this in essence means is that the transformative power that social media possess is
widely available to a third of Ugandans. Another app that is widely available to a third of Ugandans is mTrac. The app has taken advantage of the ubiquity of cheap phones in Uganda. Funded by UNICEF, DfID, and WHO (they built the software), mTrac essentially harnesses the great potential of crowdsourcing by letting health workers/volunteers in even far-flung areas gather details of diseases as well as drug supplies before dispatching them by text message to respective district offices. It has been described by Sean Blaschke, UNICEF’s health-innovation work in Africa head, as “a toll-free SMS complaints hotline”. Its mobility has, in a way, helped mitigate the drug stockouts that plague many government-owned brick and mortar health facilities. Though not one hundred percent, mTrac users undergo a rigorous bout of sensitization that sets out to ensure that details of diseases and drug supplies sent are spot on. UNICEF has taken the aspect of crowdsourcing to another level by creating U-report – an SMS social networking group where people aptly called U-reporters compare notes about development issues. U-report is no different from a Facebook group and as such can target specific subsets. Just like that Facebook group targeting cat lovers, U-report texts can be targeted to, say, pregnant women when free antenatal services are available in an area. So, what’s in a phone? Lots of transformative power, it turns out.
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