Teleuse@BOP3: A Qualitative Study - LIRNEasia

several tasks remotely but the nature of these tasks is more personal than professional. For instance, a male
‘Jeepney’ (a jeep-bus) driver receives texts from his customers to pick them up from a certain location in Philippines.
Another respondent who repairs windows will receive calls as well as text messages from his boss to reach a
particular location where he is to start work. Conversely, in the urban female group discussion we can note a
respondent whose phone is a medium between her sister who is an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and her
children. The respondent is taking care of her sisters’ children in her absence and her phone serves the purpose of
coordinating with the sister. Another respondent who is working and thus can not stay at home during the day time is
using her phone to coordinate with her eldest son who is responsible for taking care of her younger children while
she is at work.
Male BOP respondents in Thailand are found to be using their phones for entertainment purposes more than the
female BOP respondents. Male respondents prefer to play games and listen to songs on their mobile phones more
often than the female respondents. Again, like in Philippines, the top contacts of the male BOP respondents are
primarily from their work. Either they are in constant touch with their bosses or communicating with their colleagues
and customers. Thus their primary usage of mobile phones is work related. They do use their phones to stay in touch
with friends and family but mainly they seem to be using their phones to coordinate their work. Sammy, who is a
mechanic by profession, mentions that he has to call the spare parts shop owner at least 5 to 10 times a day to
enquire about the availability of various parts that he requires. On the other hand he calls his mother and brother only
once in two days. Female respondents also have professional contacts listed in their top contacts but their usage
revolves around calling their boyfriends or mothers and friends more often than they call their colleagues or other
people related to their work. Thus there is a clear cut difference in usage of mobile phones in Thailand where
females are found to be using it more to manage their social and personal networks while the male respondents are
making use of the mobile phones to manage their work.
This is also true for most of the South Asian countries. However, in Bangladesh though males claim to have bought
their phones to stay in touch with their family, their mobile usage patterns clearly indicate that they are using their
phones more for business than for social reasons. The female respondents seem quite clear in their reasons to buy
mobile phones where they are buying phones to manage their social networks and are using it for the same reasons.
Gender based discussions on telecom usage also need to deal with female usage of public phones as well as
changing social perceptions around women’s use of mobile phones.
In India, unlike in any of the other countries in South Asia, we see a clear preference in the use of public phones
among female respondents. Women are using these phones to make calls in case they do not have access to mobile
phones or landline phones or they are using the public phone to supplement their mobile use when their phone credit
nears an end. Unlike Bangladesh and Pakistan, where female respondents clearly indicate that using public phones
is difficult and socially criticized, in India, women are using public phones on a regular basis with the most frequent
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