info 
 
Volume 11 Issue 2  
Published: 2009 | Start Page: 6  
Special Issue: Network development: wireless applications for the next billion users  
 
Articles: 

 Counting customers, subscribers and mobile phone numbers  
Ewan Sutherland (pp. 6-23)  
Keywords: Customers, Mobile communication systems, Telecommunication 
networks  
ArticleType: Research paper  

 Market structure and penetration in the Latin American mobile sector  
Judith Mariscal (pp. 24-41)  
Keywords: Competitive strategy, Market system, Mobile communication 
systems  
ArticleType: Research paper  

 The telecommunications policy process in post-conflict developing countries: 
the case of Liberia  
Michael L. Best, Dhanaraj Thakur (pp. 42-57)  
Keywords: Liberia, Telecommunications, War  
ArticleType: Case study  

 Two complementary mobile technologies for disaster warning  
Rohan Samarajiva, Nuwan Waidyanatha (pp. 58-65)  
Keywords: Mobile communication systems, Natural disasters, Risk 
management  
ArticleType: General review  

 Exploring mobile phone-sharing practices in Ghana  
Araba Sey (pp. 66-78)  
Keywords: Ghana, Mobile communication systems, Telephone, User studies  
ArticleType: Case study  

 Mobile telephone opportunities: the case of micro- and small enterprises in 
Ghana  
Godfred Frempong (pp. 79-94)  
Keywords: Business development, Mobile communication systems, Rural 
areas, Small enterprises  
ArticleType: Research paper  

 From voice ubiquity to mobile broadband: challenges of technology transition 
among low-income Jamaicans  
Hopeton S. Dunn (pp. 95-111)  
Keywords: Information literacy, Internet, Mobile communication systems  
ArticleType: Case study  
Book Review 
ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia – Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks  
Vol : 11 Issue: 2  
Special Issue: Network development: wireless applications for the next billion users  
Author(s): Kammy Naidoo  
Guest editorial 
Network development: wireless applications for the next billion new users  
Vol : 11 Issue: 2  
Special Issue: Network development: wireless applications for the next billion users  
Author(s): Amy K. Mahan, William H. Melody  
 
From voice ubiquity to mobile broadband:
challenges of technology transition among
low-income Jamaicans
Hopeton S. Dunn
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the prevailing widespread and popular access
to mobile phones among Jamaica’s poor may be used to support the public policy goal of transitioning
these users from mainly voice to more advanced applications, including m-government, personal
educational growth and teleworking, via increased connectivity to mobile internet and other forms of
broadband access.
Design/methodology/approach – The article analytically reports the findings of two national usage
studies of low-income mobile respondents in Jamaica.
Findings – There is a prevailing positive disposition among Jamaicans of all social classes for the use of
higher levels of work-related communications technologies, once these are priced in a manner that
make them accessible. This is a strong foundation upon which to build crucial technology links to key
business and economic opportunities. Mobiles are potential bridges for low-income users from their
present voice-dominated usage to higher end applications such as further education, better access to
public services and other more intensive work-related uses.
Practical implications – If made more accessible, mobile internet could help bridge information and
education gaps experienced by the financially impoverished majority. More low-income people could be
connected through such simplified protocol platforms as .Mobi and into wider use of M-services.
Originality/value – The empirical studies indicate for the first time that low income users of mobile
phones are not just engaged in idle chatter but have a higher order economic and survival motivation in
their patterns and uses of the mobile phone.
Keywords Mobile communication systems, Internet, Information literacy
Paper type Case study
Introduction
The mobile phone has emerged as one of the most dynamic forms of ICTs in the twenty-first
century. The rapid global spread and mobility of cellular telephony have challenged the
growth rate of prior communications devices to become the technology of choice for people
in most countries of the world. These increasingly versatile, miniaturized gadgets can be
found in urban communities in the developed north as well as in underdeveloped regions in
the south, even given continuing gaps in income and access.
In Jamaica, the mobile telephony quickly penetrated the so-called upper classes, through to
the middle class, and more gradually down to the low-income groups. This pattern of
diffusion has generated on-going analysis of the impact of the mobile phone on different
social strata. These approaches range from the extremes of technological determinism
which view innovations as being capable, by themselves, of transforming society, to
techno-skeptics such as Postman (1993), to social determinists like McLuhan (1964) and
DeKerckhove (1995) who view technology as socially defined extensions of human
capacities with the potential of enabling a wide range of economic and social opportunities.
DOI 10.1108/14636690910941911 VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009, pp. 95-111, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1463-6697 j info j PAGE 95
Hopeton S. Dunn is the
Academic Director of the
Telecommunications Policy
and Management
Programme, Mona School
of Business, Faculty of
Social Sciences, University
of the West Indies, Mona,
Kingston, Jamaica.
The mobile phone is emerging as a social enabler of opportunities by virtue of its mass
accessibility, portability and range of applications. From this perspective, we embrace
Ahonen’s (2007) viewpoint that the mobile phone is conceivably the seventh mass media
channel:
Like the internet before it, today the phone can replicate everything the previous six mass media
can do (Ahonen, 2007).
He cites seven distinct characteristics of the cell phone that are unavailable on the previous
six media channels:
1. The phone is the first personal media.
2. The phone is permanently carried.
3. The phone is the first always on mass media.
4. The phone has a built-in payment mechanism.
5. The phone is a creative tool available always at the point of creative impulse.
6. Mobile has near perfect audience information.
7. Only mobile can capture the social context of media consumption.
Though intuitive and straightforward, these characteristics are useful markers of an
innovation whose influence continues to expand globally. However, in identifying the many
positive attributes of the mobile phone, one must not ignore some key constraints in the use
of this technology. Even with more expensive personal digital assistant (PDA) versions, the
small screen can be a constraint to viewing and processing large volumes of text or graphic
data or to conduct sustained educational instruction. While its miniature character aids
portability, it can also be a drawback in terms of the keyboard size, often used for texting.
The Jamaican ethnographic study (Dunn, 2008) has shown that an absence of basic literacy
can limit non-voice uses of the phone, although this is not a problem unique to mobiles.
Further, as a small device, the mobile phone has proven to be easily lost, misplaced or
stolen. For the poor, possession of the device does not equate with effective access, as it is
often out of pre-paid credit.
Nevertheless, the cellular phone is part of a wider communications technology ecology, in
which a number of opportunities are embedded for low income users and developing
nations. This is reflected in Yoshio Utsumi’s comment on the increasing importance of
communications and the possibilities that can be achieved if they are leveraged correctly:
With this widening of the communication horizon, we are able to build bridges across cultures as
never before, generating a cross-flow of ideas, empowering people with information and
knowledge, and promoting meaningful dialogue with information and knowledge, and promoting
meaningful dialogue between different regions and communities, between nations and between
civilizations. We now have technological capacity to reach out to vulnerable and displaced
communities and close the digital divide that deprives millions from the benefits of information
and communication technologies. These powerful tools have the potential to help achieve the
development goals and aspirations of people across the planet, such as reducing poverty and
illiteracy, increasing agricultural production, and improving health care and environmental
protection (Utsumi, 2006).
It is in this context that we argue that mobile telephony, as an emerging champion among
ICTs, should be pursued as an important part of the national and global ICT development
strategy, given its dynamic nature and potential impact. Our studies have shown that among
the great majority of users the mobile phone is functioning as an intermediary or bridging
technology to higher levels of interactive broadband usage and e-commerce applications
among the poor.
In the Jamaican household survey (Dunn, 2007)[1], some 1,174 low-income respondents
were sampled to get a wider understanding of mobile telephony usage patterns among the
poor, and to examine the social environment and other contextual issues related to ICT use.
Following the quantitative baseline data gathering, the additional ethnographic study was
undertaken over a six-month period (Dunn, 2008), with respondents ranging from urban
PAGE 96 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
youth to older users in poor rural areas and inner city communities. This qualitative
component involved in-depth interviews, focus group sessions, research diaries and the
more probing diary-assisted interviews. It is the data from these studies that are brought to
bear on our analysis in this paper.
Mobile telephony in Jamaica: main findings and theoretical underpinnings
The emergence and growth of the current phase of digital technologies, including mobile
telephony, has given rise to a discussion about the role of technology and its impact on
change and on society. It is reaffirmed here that technologies are not ends in themselves, but
means by which humans can fashion our environments and societies. These means, when
taking the form of pervasive personal attachments, can acquire disproportionate influence
beyond their normal roles. The mobile telephone is at least as prevalent in the lives of new
adopters as television and radio combined. This messaging and information system has
enjoyed a faster adoption rate than any other communication technology in the region, and
has captured the imagination of both men and women, and of people in all age ranges. The
mobile phone is at once social and personal, and is in current deployment as an ‘‘almost
anywhere any time’’ medium with access to many other antecedent or subsequent
innovations and services, including radio, television, the landline phones and the internet.
Mobile adoption
Early analysts of technology innovation and diffusion have argued that adoption modeling by
successive groups of users can explain the nature and pace of adoption of innovations.
Rogers argued that a minority of early adopters tend to lead the way into mass utilization of
newly emerging technologies (Rogers, 1962). He advocated measurement of two key
variables: the speed of initial take-off and the pace of subsequent growth.
Data on the adoption of mobile telephony in Jamaica fit Roger’s framework. Early
development and marketing of the mobile phone was targeted at the upwardly mobile and
professional classes. It was initially intended as an expensive product for the business
leaders, who were the elite group of innovators and early adopters. But once the product
became accessible in price and availability, as a result of competition and market reforms,
there was rapid mass adoption. This was based on pent up demand, intensive competitive
marketing, convenient prepaid usage cost coverage options and failure in the market for
wired domestic telephones. There was a dramatic reduction in the use and importance of
call boxes and a growth in fixed to mobile substitution. According to our surveys, young
people were among the fastest adopters and at 2008 there was overall only a very small
group of citizens that constitute non-users or the so-called laggards within the system.
Figure 1 indicates the adoption trend for the mobile phone in Jamaica during the decade
after its initial introduction in Jamaica. The trend lines reflecting uptake of mobiles for the first
four years is low and flat, indicating a small number of early adopters. It should be pointed
out, however, that this pattern is not an indication of genuine lack of market uptake. The
attributes of the cellular phone were known to the Jamaican consumers, as mobiles were
already in wide use by then in neighboring North America, to which many Jamaicans travel.
The reality is that many citizens, unable to gain access to landlines, were keen to get a
telephone by any means possible. But not at any price. The low initial rate of adoption was
more a reflection of a cost and access distortion created by the monopoly provider. The
pent-up demand exploded between 2000 and 2001, when new competitive providers
entered, offering a wider range of choices, easier access, more widely available prepaid
options, new features such as per second charging, lower handset costs and better
marketing.
It is clear that where initial adoption of the mobile phone was slow, the primary inhibiting
factors were service availability and handset prices as well as network effects such as
limited access by other users. Once competition had driven prices down and made access
more general in the population, growth became exponential. Figure 1 does not reflect the
later stages of the adoption process, although, as indicated, we are aware of near ubiquity
by 2008. The adoption pattern conforms to Beal and Bohlen’s (1958) technology adoption
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 97
cycle, with an upward trend, followed by a leveling and then a downward trend as the
technology becomes more mature and the market more saturated (Figure 2).
Rogers’ (1962) ideas of innovation diffusion were built on the earlier theoretical constructs of
the technology adoption lifecycle model, introduced by Beal and Bohlen (1958). Discussing
agricultural and seed corn innovation, they argued that a new product or service would be
more easily adopted based on knowing themindset and characteristics of specific groups of
innovators or first adopters followed by other groups of early adopters, then late adopters
and afterwards those who are the end-stage adopters, called laggards. Applied to the
mobile phone adoption market, the latter group would include an estimated four percent of
Jamaicans who had not yet acquired a mobile phone. But the great majority of adopters
would be represented in the mid-point stage of the product lifecycle in Jamaica and the
region.
Mobile usage – survey results
The 2007 Household Survey of 1,174 low-income respondents in Jamaica indicated a very
high level of usage among all the low-income respondents sampled. Some 94 percent of
respondents indicated that they had used a mobile phone to make or receive calls in the
preceding three months. The results also indicate that 6 percent of respondents had not
Figure 1 Jamaica’s mobile adoption trend-line 1997-2006
Figure 2 Technology diffusion cycle
PAGE 98 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
used a mobile phone in the reference period. However, as an indicator of the overall high
levels of mobile phone usage in Jamaica, the results show that usage was recorded
consistently above 90 percent across most age groups. This was also true among both men
and women where 94.9 percent of women and 93.1 percent of men had used a cell phone in
the three months preceding the study.
The data suggest mobile telephony constitutes a common, well-established and constant
feature in the lives of a large majority of Jamaicans. This is supported by 69 percent of the
respondents who reported that they had used the mobile phone for a period of four years or
more, which is consistent across both sexes with 67.5 percent of males and 71.6 percent of
female users having long usage profiles.
Respondents in the 2008 qualitative component of the Jamaican mobile telephony studies
also emphasized their need of the mobile phone as an inextricable feature of their lives.
Respondents from depressed inner-city communities said that having a mobile phone is like
a necessity, because through the mobile they were accorded an elevated social status and
respect. One respondent indicated that it ‘‘is all about being part of a crew or gang. Wid yu
phone yu feel hype and yu gain respect.’’ This is a powerful motivation for ICT technology
acquisition and a foundation for more intensive engagements with broader social,
educational and personal applications.
The study also found that the majority of mobile phone use is mainly among the more
educated strata of younger working people who engage in simple SMS text searches as a
conduit for transactions. Significantly, however, we found that an unusually high proportion of
poor rural and inner city youth were opting to use voice calls instead of ‘‘texting’’. Figure 3
highlights some of the reasons why respondents were not using the text message feature.
Further investigation indicated that illiteracy among these groups was a real impediment for
using text messaging. It would seem that while older users were put off by the manual
dexterity required for texting, many younger users who would normally be expected to use
SMS were not able to do so as they cannot read or write to the required standard. To
encourage widespread text-based usages, public policy will need to address basic literacy
as a critical step towards information literacy and greater involvement in the digital space.
General attitudes to technology
To demonstrate the occurrence of extensive mobile phone usages among poor Jamaicans,
the survey further explored the attitude of these users to technology in general. The findings
from the 2008 study indicate that Jamaicans are in fact keen on technology adoption if the
appurtenances are affordable. An example of this attitude is the response to mobile
telephony after the liberalization of the telecommunications sector in 2001. Digicel, now the
leading mobile services provider in the country, was able to amass 100,000 mobile
Figure 3 Reasons for not using SMS regularly
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 99
subscribers in its first 100 days, a goal which the new company had established for its first
year of operation.
Extending the argument beyond the Jamaican shores, to neighbors in Haiti, a similar affinity
was displayed towards the cell phone as a common phenomenon throughout the
Caribbean. Charles (2007) reports that ‘‘cell phones are connecting Haitians in unheard-of
ways, touching the lives of rich and poor, farmer and urbanite, and propelling this Caribbean
nation to nearly first-world stature – at least when it comes to talking on the phone.’’
The core message of this shared regional experience is that people with low-incomes have a
high degree of affinity for mobile telephony because it enables them to manage their lives
and social reality better. Many indicated that they aspire to greater skill levels and more
advanced ICTapplications, once these were affordable. They agreed that not only is the cell
phone bridging or transitioning low income people to more sophisticated technological
usages, but also to more advanced economic and social involvements. The potential
positive externalities of the mobile phone among low-income people are discussed in the
section below.
Mobile – from disruptive to transitional technologies
It may well be that what Bower and Christensen described as ‘‘disruptive technology’’ has
found expression in the manner in which the low-priced mobile phone is developing. In
Christensen’s later works he uses the term ‘‘disruptive innovations’’. These innovations are
ones that may be lower in performance and cost, but can fundamentally alter market
diffusion patterns of an established technology. This radical market disruption often comes
from low-end products that more effectively meet user needs and are found to be attractive
to a larger number of users than the main existing product.
Other recent examples of disruptive innovations include cheap digital photography that
made print film virtually obsolete for a large part of the market. Another example is the
portable, inexpensive ‘‘flash drive’’, which has had a disruptive effect on the cost and
purchasing patterns of earlier systems of computer memory storage.
That mobile broadband is becoming a disruptive innovation in relation to conventional
methods of internet access is something that is increasingly evident with the emerging
convergence of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) – a cheaper means of delivering voice
messages globally. Figure 4 illustrates how disruption can occur across multiple established
Figure 4 How low-end disruption occurs over time
PAGE 100 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
services and usages, each showing mild to moderate growth rates, but superceded by the
radical growth of a low-end innovation over a similar or shorter period.
Within this schema, the mobile phone may be regarded as a disruptive innovation in its low
cost and capacity to re-structure and radically change the established markets for
interpersonal communication. This includes its impact on fixed line phones, and on
emerging access patterns to the Internet among a majority of users.
The mobile phone has already transformed the established market for wired telephony in
ways that now render disproportionate the number of mobile phones to landlines both in
Jamaica and globally. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the
process widely documented as mobile substitution is continuing to redefine the meaning of
such terms as ‘‘teledensity’’ and ‘‘universality’’.
The fixed to mobile substitution rate in Jamaica has mirrored the rate of change globally,
despite efforts to slow the consumer shift from landlines to mobiles. Between 2004 and 2007,
there was a 15 percent decrease in the number of fixed line customers in Jamaica, even as
the mobile customer base expanded. The number of mobile subscribers has been
increasing rapidly and stood at just under three million in 2007. The entry of Flow, a fixed line,
triple play provider in that year may however eventually slow the pace of substitution, but not
the continuing disruptive growth of the mobile side of the network and its potential as a
bridging innovation into wider and more popular broadband uses. This mobile trend may
well be even further extended with the competitive effect of Ame´rica M?vil’s Claro entering
the market.
While Christensen demonstrated that these characteristics can lead to the uprooting of other
more traditional technologies, the argument can be extended to demonstrate that not only
are the older personal communication technologies being uprooted by mobiles but also that
certain fixed aspects of the social structure are being disrupted as well. While we do not
ascribe this exclusively to the mobile phone, we nevertheless note its role and relevance in
increasing re-adjustments to interclass and interpersonal relationships. In the same way that
online networking sites are able to bridge social and geographical divides among varied
users globally, so too can the mobile phone in enhancing linkages among all classes of
users. Growing business opportunities are created with skilled inner city workers advertising
their services and their mobile telephone contact numbers to upper and middle class
residents on the basis of initial address anonymity.
Among the key questions asked of respondents is the extent to which having access to a
mobile phone has improved aspects of their lives. Figure 5 displays response with regards to
work.
Figure 5 Mobile phone usage at work
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 101
What can be observed from Figure 5 is that the percentage of low-income respondents, who
indicated that the cell phone assists a lot on their jobs, is actually higher than that of the
high-income respondents. This result runs counter to the prevailing beliefs that higher
income earners gain more extensive benefits from use of the cell phone. The qualitative
findings corroborate the observed quantitative differential between socio-economic classes
in terms of the impact of mobile phone usage for work.
In terms of educational and information services, the quantitative findings suggest that the
mobile phone is being used in these areas by both the high and low income earners, as
shown in Figure 6.
Again we observed that low-income citizens are relatively as avid as upper income groups in
the extent to which they engage in complex applications of the mobile phone to suit specific
social and personal needs. It is from this vantage point we argue that the mobile phone has
an inherent field of embedded opportunities for the poor and marginalized in Jamaica and
the wider Caribbean. The data demonstrate that low-income people are not technology
averse. Internet enabled mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous among all
socio-economic groups owing to decreasing handset costs, and that the mobile phone is
being used as an educational instrument. These are all pointing to the mobile phone as a
potential development tool.
But, some might question why traditional fixed line broadband services are not also
considered as a possible route to connect low income Jamaicans to the information highway.
Based on the survey findings close to 70 percent of the respondents indicated they do not
have a fixed line connection at home. The low uptake of fixed line telephony among the
respondents can be generalized to the overall population. The World Bank reported that in
2006 there were 17.8 fixed telephone lines per 100 people in Jamaica, which is a low fixed
teledensity by any standard[2]. Fixed line telephony is still the main avenue through which
people access the internet. The low fixed line teledensity in Jamaica therefore suggests that
a large percentage of the population is unable to access the Internet through this medium.
Figure 7 illustrates this fact.
It is from this vantage point that the paper argues for mobile broadband as a viable strategy
to connect low-income people to the Internet Society.
Residential anonymity
A cluster of respondents in the Jamaican qualitative study indicated that a key reason for the
affinity demonstrated towards the mobile phone is what we have termed ‘‘residential
anonymity’’. One of the many plights that inner city communities in Jamaica have to contend
Figure 6 Education services and information access through the cell phone
PAGE 102 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
with is the issue of stigma associated with residing at the so-called ‘‘wrong address’’. Since
political independence in 1962, there was a massive migration of people from rural areas to
the national capital, Kingston, to seek opportunities and jobs. As the population in Kingston
swelled, large pockets of depressed communities of poor, unemployed and mainly young
Jamaicans emerged on the outskirts of business centers and more established residential
communities. In a later volatile political period buoyed by ideological clashes between
political partisans, residents in these makeshift communities were designated as being from
various camps and some youth recruited as pawns in a bloody political game to violently
reinforce political party power.
The social history of that political period has carried over into modern day Jamaica, where
these garrison communities are still perceived as comprising partisans of one stripe or
another, or criminals and untrustworthy individuals. The reality is that even uninvolved
professionally qualified residents of such communities are often stigmatized and unable to
find meaningful employment when their addresses come into question.
Respondents in the study who hail from such communities highly value the mobile phone,
because it disguises their postcode and physical location. Said one respondent:
Even with fixed line numbers an employer could use the area code to pinpoint exactly where a
potential employee lives but not so with mobiles . . .
The residential and inner city communities represent two distinct physical places and
spaces. The data suggest that the social mobility of an individual from one physical address
to another is very difficult because of specific social barriers. An implicit notion arising from
the qualitative leg of the study is that inner city residents are now able to transcend their
places of abode to actively engage in a virtual space that involves both the elite and the poor
without changing their physically embodied place. As one respondent noted:
Nobady nuh know wey mi live whenmi gi demmi phone numba [no one knows where I live when I
give them my phone number].
This also demonstrates the potential of the mobile phone to move beyond being a disruptive
technology to becoming a transitional or bridging technology in people’s lives. The reality is
that the cell phone is vital in terms of poor peoples’ usage of it to realize a tangible personal
or family income benefit, to offer services, build and extend social and interpersonal
relations or to seek employment.
Mobile – the transitional technology
Mobile telephony can be viewed as a transitional or bridging technology in the sense that it is
facilitating mobility to higher levels of communication technology usage. Will lower hardware
prices and cheaper network access drive wide scale popular adoption of broadband
technologies in the same manner as the mass adoption of the once elite mobile phone? This
is likely to some extent, although effective access to broadband usage requires a higher
Figure 7 Number of hours spent using the internet
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 103
level of training and cognitive skills. The ultimate answer to the rate of popular broadband
adoption may well relate to the development of a ‘‘killer’’ application that can capture the
imagination of lower income users in the manner that e-mail dominated the middle class
adoption of the internet.
The patterns of technology adoption to-date have demonstrated that Jamaicans are not
technology averse, and would be both quick learners and early or mid-stage adopters in the
lifecycle of innovations regarded as beneficial to themselves and their families. The
technologies of choice in the present era appear to be ones that combine mobility, low and
user regulated costs with high delivery speeds and easy access. With continued growth in
network competition leading to lower prices, and with improvements in the fidelity of WiFi
and WiMax wireless technologies, mobile broadband would appear to have a future of more
wide-scale adoption among working people in Jamaica, the Caribbean and globally.
WiMax
Wireless technologies are potent enabling platforms for outreach to underserved
communities and digitally excluded individuals. The initial cost for network development
in terms of infrastructure is historically not as daunting as fixed-line networks. A further
positive attribute of wireless technologies is that they can enable larger geographical
coverage in a much shorter time than fixed line technologies. The Jamaican government
through its executive agency, the SpectrumManagement Authority, has initiated the process
of enabling wireless access to all Jamaicans by auctioning the requisite spectrum band
frequency. Following this move, the dominant Jamaican mobile telephony firm has signaled
its interest to offer mobile WiMax services to its clientele across Jamaica. This is an important
development with significant implications for low income Jamaicans who are unable to
access the internet through traditional avenues such as the desktop or personal computer.
This mirrors developments across the world. Countries in Europe have already begun this
move, with Sweden and Norway auctioning their 2.6GHz spectrum in November 2007 and
April 2008, respectively in a move to build out WiMax networks. The UK is in the process of
doing the same.
Wireless interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) has been heralded as an optimal
technology with the extensive range and wireless reach capable of bridging the gap
between those now excluded and advanced broadband users. In 2005, the Institute of
Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) ratified the 802.16e standard for mobile WiMax,
an important development in the broader access strategies we are foregrounding. WiMax is
a digital technology that supports wireless broadband with a large geographical spread.
Compared to a WiFi network with a geographical radius of about 100 feet, WiMax can cover
a radius of 40 miles or more. As the technology does not have to operate with line of sight
(LOS) between a user and a base station, it is regarded as very cost effective even in a
developing country context.
Another important aspect of digital WiMax networks is the great degree of spectrum
flexibility that they allow. According to IEEE specifications, WiMax networks operate in the
frequency bands of 2 to 11GHz and 10 to 66GHz (licensed and unlicensed bands).
Spectrum has become an increasingly important resource as the global communications
industry expands. Governments are therefore moving towards technologies that are more
spectrally efficient, without compromising the quality of communications services.
WiMax, when converged with the internet, GPS systems and other emerging information
networks and delivery systems, is already providing the leading edge for next generation
applications. It is to these applications that today’s generation of mobile users will graduate,
in a complex but already discernable process of technology transitions, as reflected in
Figure 8
The upward transitioning of information and communications technologies is in the direction
of increasing mobility, inter-operability and addressable applications. The trend reaffirms
Ahonen’s notion of the mobile phone as the seventh mass medium, providing the
functionalities of most mainstream media. It is these integrated features available in a small,
mobile and affordable device that, no doubt, endear the mobile phone to so many
low-income users.
PAGE 104 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
Open source and content access
Ongoing improvements in open source mobile operating systems represent an avenue for
wider access to content. In 2008, several industry players launched a partnership to unite
the Symbian operating system platform. The partnership includes Nokia, Sony Ericsson,
Motorola and NTT DOCOMO. The resulting unified platform is expected to be open source
and royalty free.
This strategy is intended to increase the rate of innovation in mobile operating software
without incurring substantial research and development costs. It would provide more
advanced services to wireless consumers at current prices. This is an important initiative that
will no doubt begin to rival the deployment of Google Android, a Linux based mobile
operating software that has the potential to fundamentally change the mobile industry
ecosystem.
Therefore, greater broadband access via WiMax signal distribution systems could be
complemented by low-cost, open source content in the growing wiki world of Web 2.0 and
beyond. These developments could contribute immeasurably to transitioning the digitally
excluded communities from mainly voice-based mobile devices to more advanced
data-capable high-speed applications for individual and social development.
Applications – banking and M-services
The Jamaica survey findings challenge a common perception that low-income people’s use
of mobile phones is mainly for chatter or idle social conversations. Our data suggest that the
majority of calls consist of a deeper networking element intermixed with light social
greetings, enquiries and personal updates. Data gathered from respondent’s diaries in
Figure 8 Selected technologies and transitions
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 105
Jamaica in 2008 indicated that while social conversation may disguise more deeply
embedded economic inquiries, there is rarely only informal chatter pervading a call.
Beyond social or economic issues, Jamaicans are assimilating the cell phone into a range of
different usages in order to challenge some of their social and economic limitations. Below
are some of the responses from interview respondents:
Shawn, male and an unemployed inner-city resident:
. . . most times I don’t have access to a TV so I use the Internet on my cell phone to get certain
sports news like football and the NBA.
Mr. Miller, male security guard:
. . . my life is really dependent on the cell phone because I have to use it for a number of things all
at once. I can’t wait to get an internet phone because I am a sound selector and then I can
download music.
Luke, male, full time and working university student:
. . . I have a blackberry phone and the internet is very important to me because I am always on the
road and I need to check mails and those kind of things for new opportunities and to set up
interviews.
As indicated in Figure 9, there are other beneficial uses for which the mobile phone is being
used by low income Jamaicans. Drawing further on the results from the quantitative study we
have found that a small but growing number of people are using their mobile phones to:
B conduct limited banking transactions – e.g. checking balances and shifting funds
between accounts;
B access Government services – e.g. finding out details of regulations, tax liabilities and
other fees;
B download internet content – ranging from music, weather and sports reports to stock
market results and porn; and
B participate in contests or competition drawings – such as television game shows and
music contests.
Figure 9 M-services by number of respondents reporting use
PAGE 106 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
Applications – mobile money
One of the questions asked in the 2007 quantitative study, tried to gauge the attitude of poor
people to the mobile phone as a money transfer device. A total of 75 percent of the
respondents indicated that they would definitely use a facility that allowed them to transfer
money from abroad through their phones. A smaller 25 percent indicated some
apprehension about such transactions. Emerging initiatives for using mobile phones to
effect sale and transfer of credit and to transact business in mobile money appear to have
some foundation for the future. In a wider sense, an important finding is that there is an open
popular embrace among literate low-income users of e-commerce, using the mobile phone
for starters.
Mobiles in educational pursuits
The pursuit of educational qualification through the mobile phone is another real yet
under-explored deliverable of the mobile phone. Beside the possibility of internet research
throughmore advancedmobile units, the portable handset contains many features useful for
educational pursuits.
Stanford University, through its International Outreach Programme, undertook a pilot study
called the ‘‘Dunia Moja’’ project, which provides distance education in Africa through mobile
phones. Stanford enlisted the support of three African universities: Makerere University in
Uganda, Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania and the University of
the Western Cape in South Africa. The project also involved private sector telecom services
providers who donated high-end mobile phones to the program as well as helping with the
technical issues involved. Pre-recorded lectures and lecture notes were circulated through
the cell phone to students who were part of the project in Africa.
In Jamaica, a strategy being developed by university students is to record class lectures via
digital mobile phones and also capture complex images or diagrams using the photo feature
of the phone and later downloading these on faster, more powerful, larger screen systems at
home, in libraries or in offices for closer study. These low cost pro-poor initiatives, among
others, hold positive implications for more widely distributed educational opportunities from
more endowed sources being made available to recipients anywhere in the world.
Techno-diffusion factors
While innovation and diffusion theories of technology adoption are generally concerned with
people and the emerging tools used in society, they are analytically inadequate to explain
the personal relationships that individuals develop with their communications devices. This
is an area in communications research that needs to be more extensively developed in the
future. The notion of the spatio-temporality of the mobile phone may point a lead in this
direction. Brown and Perry (2002, p. 50) suggest that ‘‘. . . to call something a ‘place’, brings
attention to its located, embodied, personal, local, human nature. And to call something
‘space’ is to bring attention to its abstract, objective, global, general, inhuman qualities.’’ The
objective localized conception of space is instanced by a user of a communication
technology who is in two spaces simultaneously: the physical space where each user is
located and the metaphysical airtime space that both users occupy. Applied to mobile
telephony, the interface of space, place and time offers an opportunity for more complex
analyses about enhancing real time interactivity and possible new applications to reduce
social spaces and distances. The idea of residential anonymity as mentioned earlier is a
case in point.
This point is reinforced by Schegloff as cited by Rettie (2005). Schegloff’s observation of the
simultaneous existence of a mobile phone caller in two different places and spaces seems to
fit into Bauman’s notion of liquid modernity:
In a world of shape-shifting capital and labor, modernity is best defined as amorphous – in short,
liquid.
Bauman’s idea can also be seen in the context of Urry’s (2007) notion of multiple mobilities.
Urry suggests mobility does not only refer to the movement of people but also ‘‘of other
societies of ideas, images, technologies, monies, flowing across various scapes’’ (Urry,
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 107
2007, p. 188). Numerous other authors from disparate backgrounds have hinted at similar
ideas using different terms: Castells (2000) called it ‘‘timeless time’’, Cairncross (1997)
called it the ‘‘death of distance’’, and Urry (2007) called it ‘‘instantaneous time’’.
These ideas of narrowing spaces, contracted time-bands and swift outreach are defining
features of the first decade of the twenty-first century. They describe emerging processes of
social and technological convergence that privilege speed and utility. The gap we seek to
address is the continuum of innovation and social uses that lead to upward mobility of both
user and technology outcomes. It is this that defines our own ideas of the transitional and
bridging attributes of the mobile phone. It facilitates the mutation from one stage to another
usually higher stage of application while increasing the capacity to convey a user or process
into a new space without necessarily abandoning the original technology or point of
departure.
The policy nexus
The findings on mobile telephony in Jamaica reaffirm that the transitional possibilities are
significant for poor andmarginalized sections of the society. This is supported by the data on
adoption and usage to advance social and economic circumstances. Furthermore, the
development of technologies such as mobile WiMax and accessible open source content
can enable mobile phone users to transition to more advanced forms of broadband
technologies.
However, while the prognosis is positive, the inescapable reality is that there has been a very
slow uptake of broadband applications in Jamaica. Our 2007 study indicates a household
adoption rate of 21 percent for broadband services among low-income groups in Jamaica, a
level mirroring wider Caribbean trends (Dunn, 2007).
In Europe, Massini ascribes the pace and effectiveness of mobile technology adoption to
several factors explored in a comparative study of Italy and the United Kingdom. Seeking to
avoid the temptation of a reductionist approach, she draws on not one but four interrelated
influencing factors, in line with Lyytinen and King. She suggests that these factors perform
determining roles in mobile technology diffusion and growth in the sector. In her 2004
multidimensional analysis, she concludes:
A holistic research framework, based on Lyytinen and King’s (2000) model, which incorporates
the complex set of interactions between the innovation system, regulatory regime and the
marketplace, all centrally co-ordinated by inter- and intra-system standards, is proposed as an
alternative framework to analyze the complex set of interactions directly and indirectly impacting
on the rates of innovation adoption and diffusion of complex services across markets (Massini,
2004).
While these factors emerged from a European policy environment that can be quite different
from the context of the Caribbean, they are nevertheless found to be useful considerations in
analyzing and understanding the Jamaican situation. In Jamaica there is a dynamic and
accommodating interplay between the regulatory system, the innovation system and the
market, in line with Massini’s framework. However, there are other more qualitative insights
and distinctions that are necessary to reflect the full spectrum of the techno-diffusion
process. Such a multi-dimensional analysis is reflected in our 2008 research report entitled
‘‘Wha’ a Gwaan?’ – A qualitative study of mobile telephony and poverty in Jamaica’’ (see
Dunn, 2008).
In addition to the above, the policy considerations for mobile as a transitional technology
must be examined within the larger context of the Jamaican strategic roadmap included in
the National Information and Communication Technology (NICT) plan (Dunn and Duggan,
2007). Figure 10 displays a possible strategic roadmap that spans seven very important
interdependent variables, which are critical to address the overarching goal of e-inclusion
and public access to ICTs. An enabling policy and legislative environment remains crucial,
as is the development of multifaceted information literacy from early childhood to advanced
members of the national community and workforce.
The Jamaican NICT proposals underline the importance of a creative mix of public policy
and private sector initiatives in the domain of education, training culture, content and
PAGE 108 j infoj VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009
creativity as critical steps towards ensuring effective public access to ICT services. It is
made clear that physical access to the wide range of ICTs is virtually meaningless unless
people are equipped with the cognitive skills necessary to generate new innovations and
make meaning from the bits of information flowing through networked systems.
One very important policy consideration in the Jamaican context is in the area of educational
technology. On one hand, it was demonstrated that Jamaicans are not technology averse,
and are willing to use available technologies to improve their livelihoods. On the other hand,
it was demonstrated that among the poor, the usage for SMS and text related applications
were low because of the high level if illiteracy. As a policy imperative, creative approaches in
educational technology policies are now necessary in order to leverage the ubiquity of the
mobile phone as a more pervasive learning device. This approach should be spearheaded
by the major universities in collaboration with the government ministries of education and
information. This might also turn out to be a creative approach to addressing widespread
illiteracy among Jamaican youth, as it emphasizes self-directed learning and a process of
‘‘learning smart’’. However, it should be noted that prolific use of the mobile phone is no
longer the key policy goal. Mobiles, as the most widely distributed form of ICT among the
Jamaican populace, can empower more low income Jamaicans to use other forms of
technologies for personal development, including enhanced education and income
generation through higher levels of ICT entrepreneurship and global marketing.
Amidst the call for cheaper wireless technologies as tools for redressing global and local
digital inequalities and poverty, we are also cognizant of the strategic importance of overall
ICTsector development. Improved policy initiatives are needed to promote people’s upward
mobility through re-engineered low cost laptops, cheaper Internet enabled PDAs, more
widespread use of WiMax and cloud computing as well as more interactive tools for
e-government, e-health and e-banking. Such policy initiatives must facilitate low cost mobile
handsets equipped with broadband capabilities providing a more efficient entry point by the
poor to a continuum of faster and greater uses of the major global networks.
As with most policy issues, measurability of key parameters is integral to the policy
formulation and implementation processes. We must keep track of local and global indices
of telephony and broadband usage, densities and per capita expenditure on subscription
and airtime credit, among other measures. In this regard, much more work remains to be
done on developing objective and verifiable methods to capture the more nuanced and
ingrained overlaps between poverty, ICTaccess and mobile telephony availability variables.
This study affirms the importance of mobiles to inner-city residents who are now able to
challenge the stigma associated with their addresses, through the anonymity they enjoy from
use of the mobile phone. This improves their sense of well-being and agency. How is such a
positive externality to be captured in growth accounting? How can the social capital that is
Figure 10 Jamaica strategic roadmap of ICT development
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 109
developed among community members as a result of improved telephony access be
gauged as a sustainable developmental variable?
Conclusion
We have argued that the mobile phone is the technology of choice among poor Jamaicans
seeking to better engage the opportunities of the knowledge economy. The rapid arrival of a
stage of ubiquity in voice telephony in Jamaica signals the need to build on the foundation of
what can be a transitional technology towards more widespread and intensive use of the
mobile internet.
The centrality of promoting greater command of personal literacy including competences in
basic as well as information processing skills is at the heart of the way forward and an
inescapable conclusion of our analysis. That significant segments of young citizens in inner
city and rural communities in Jamaica are unable to employ texting and more advanced
uses of mobile ICT innovations is an important marker of the challenges ahead in building a
new, literate workforce as the foundation for a knowledge-based economy.
This situation is by no means unique to Jamaica, and holds lessons for many other
Caribbean and global South countries now looking to take advantage of the digital
millennium.
On the other hand, many literate users have already started to gain effective access to the
Internet for the first time via mobiles and are able to engage in a variety of pursuits ranging
from educational, research and publishing ventures to social networking and economic
transactions.
That the mobile phone can confer address anonymity to actors at the bottom of the pyramid
who happen to live at the so-called wrong post-codes is also significant. While traditional
fixed line telephony would expose caller locations, mobiles and mobile broadband
applications such as texting, other SMS messaging and e-mailing are recognized as
providing additional means to challenge the debilitating effects of digital exclusion.
As indicated, public policy must facilitate a transition from the predominantly voice-based
universal access approaches to higher operational thresholds and wider broadband usage,
from varied platforms ranging from smaller-screen mobile applications to larger screens on
more advanced computing workstations.
Effective and not simply formal access to ICTs involves the recognition that intuitive systems,
sustained affordable contact and relevant training are crucial in the use of ICTs for
development. Transitioning from low cost mobiles to more advanced wired and wireless
applications will require greater public and private sector investment in measures such as
cloud computing, smart villages, low cost hardware, reduced software costs, ICT business
incubators and in facilitating widespread training and a culture of ICT entrepreneurship.
Notes
1. The Jamaican household survey (Dunn, 2007), was conducted as part of a seven-country study
co-ordinated by the Latin American and Caribbean research network DIRSI, with the support of the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. Other countries in the study
included Trinidad and Tobago, Columbia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. Many of the findings
emerged in common, including the growing importance of mobiles to poor urban and rural
communities and marginalized individuals in the region.
2. http://devdata.worldbank.org/ict/jam_ict.pdf
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About the author
Hopeton S. Dunn is a leading communications scholar, researcher and policy analyst at the
University of the West Indies, Jamaica. He holds an endowed Chair in Telecommunications
Policy and Management and is Academic Director of the University’s Master’s Degree
Programme in Telecommunications Policy and Technology Management. Dr Dunn serves on
several national, regional and international boards or councils in his field. He is Chairman of
Jamaica’s regulatory Broadcasting Commission and a member of the Jamaica National
Commission for UNESCO. He also currently serves as Secretary General of the International
Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). He is a multi-published
author and editor, specializing in the areas of New Media Technologies, ICT for
Development, Theories of Globalization, Telecommunications Policies, and the Political
Economy of African and Caribbean Media. Dr Dunn has delivered lectures or presented on
academic panels in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.
He was a Civil Society representative at the ITU’s World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) in both Geneva and Tunis. Hopeton S. Dunn can be contacted at:
hopetondunn@gmail.com
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2009 j infoj PAGE 111
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