ict in agriculture - Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation

SECTION 1 — OVERVIEW OF ICT IN AGRICULTURE: OPPORTUNITIES, ACCESS, AND CROSS-CUTTING THEMES 27
BOX 2.7: Mobile Phones with Features Attract Rural Users in China and Beyond
Chinese mobile phone producers are concentrated in the city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. They, as well as their
products, have become known as shanzhai. a At least two innovative features associated with shanzhai devices have
wider relevance to rural consumers’ use of, and preferences for, devices in developing countries.
The first feature is that they allow users to store multiple (physical) SIM cards within the device, which allows them to
switch between carriers without having to reboot the device. This feature responds to the price sensitivity of rural consumers
in developing countries, who switch between carriers to take advantage of preferential termination rates for the
carrier of their calling destination. Because the choice of mobile network operator can be limited in rural areas, consumers
have strong incentives to take advantage of cost-saving opportunities when they exist. This demand-driven innovation
has made no inroads into the products of popular mobile phone manufacturers, which are reluctant to undermine the
business models of mobile network operators worldwide. Consumers who cannot purchase these devices can achieve
the same results through street-level hack services offering software to configure from 6 to 16 SIM card identities on one
physical SIM card, enabling users of unlocked mobile phones to switch conveniently among carriers.
A second feature of devices from Chinese mobile phone manufacturers (relevant to convergence in the “infocom” sector)
is the addition of analog television reception. This feature is found in phones with large LCD screens like those of
smartphones.
The features in these devices illustrate ways that the global mobile phone industry could choose to respond to the
demands and constraints of rural consumers—but has not. The preference of rural consumers in developing countries for
access to television over radio is well established but constrained by poor access to the electricity grid. Unlike dedicated
radio receivers, television sets have not evolved to operate on dry cell battery power alone, and mobile phone devices
with analog television functionality are the exclusive option for rural populations. Given that television remains an effective
means of delivering agricultural extension messages, the lack of support for these and other innovative features
introduced by Chinese phone manufacturers represents a missed opportunity in rural communication.
Source: Authors; Chipchase 2010; Abbey-Mensah 2001.
(a) Shanzhai signifies Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai, accessed July 2011).
through connectivity providers, content creators and disseminators,
information intermediaries, social facilitators, information
literacy educators, and the governance channels steering
the performance of these services. 19 Concerns with rural
content have traditionally been alien to public policies aimed at
universal service and universal access, but the convergence of
the mass media and telecommunications sector, as well as the
rise of the information society, make such concerns increasingly
prominent and crucial to unleashing a virtuous cycle of ICT
adoption and use in rural areas. The delivery of content-based
agricultural services is discussed in Topic Note 2.4.
The service layer reflects the synergies (or lack thereof)
among network infrastructure, connectivity modalities, access
devices, and content. The dynamics of the worldwide content
marketplace point to the dying out of traditional communications
business models, which centered on tariffs anchored in
19 See the earlier discussion of the layered nature of access
(“Access Concept”) and the Access Rainbow Framework.
ECONOMIC AND SECTOR WORK
use time, quantity of data transferred, or communications distance
covered. Such models increasingly are replaced by more
flexible subscription models and models centered on realized
interactions and transactions, paid for via micropayments. In
developing countries, where consumers are more price sensitive
and less willing to pay, the trend toward micropayments
poses a considerable challenge to content and value-added
service providers. The challenge is compounded by the marginal
success of government and donor efforts to provide
content-driven rural services in developing countries.
Traditionally, rural information services focused on providing
broadcasting (“push”) content, such as rural radio programming,
but the ubiquity of mobile devices enables the
sourcing and sharing (“pull”) of rural content. The presence
of mobile technology as an authoring tool in rural areas presents
an untapped opportunity to engage rural users in authoring
content, thereby increasing the demand for existing rural
infrastructure. Mobile devices, in combination with broadcasting
technologies such as radio, enable rural residents to