Demise of the Wireless Rural Life - Why do we need mobile phones anymore?
Mobile phone yesterday, was a miracle, bringing a uniform Quality of Service to voice and internet services.
Sadly today, with the excessive mobile penetration, todays' mobile phones suffer from:
1. Bad voice quality: Especially in the rural areas, where movement is restricted in the sense that people don't usually change their location more that three times a day, mobility is not a norm, but more an exception. Hence why should one suffer bad voice quality in two locations, where a landline would suffice, with a much higher Quality of Service.
2. No viewing of video: 3G is still a myth in rural areas. For example,in Goa, 3G is mostly prevalent from Vodafone only in the capital, but zero outside the capital. Hence video calling and viewing of videos (hampered further by the Youtube filter, which prevents videos from being viewed on mobile).
3. No video calls: Due to the absence of 3G, the only option for video calling, is through a landline connection.
4. Dependency on fragile handsets and SIM cards: If you're going to live in an area where the nearest mobile and mobile service retailer is nearly nine kilometers, then you better pray that your handset is robust with a really long battery life, and your SIM card survive a period of six years,with zero network maintenance.
5. Internet speed: Most mobile internet speed, is similar to the dial-up speed of old. It just barely manages email, twitter and facebook, but hardly anything else.
Sadly today, with the excessive mobile penetration, todays' mobile phones suffer from:
1. Bad voice quality: Especially in the rural areas, where movement is restricted in the sense that people don't usually change their location more that three times a day, mobility is not a norm, but more an exception. Hence why should one suffer bad voice quality in two locations, where a landline would suffice, with a much higher Quality of Service.
2. No viewing of video: 3G is still a myth in rural areas. For example,in Goa, 3G is mostly prevalent from Vodafone only in the capital, but zero outside the capital. Hence video calling and viewing of videos (hampered further by the Youtube filter, which prevents videos from being viewed on mobile).
3. No video calls: Due to the absence of 3G, the only option for video calling, is through a landline connection.
4. Dependency on fragile handsets and SIM cards: If you're going to live in an area where the nearest mobile and mobile service retailer is nearly nine kilometers, then you better pray that your handset is robust with a really long battery life, and your SIM card survive a period of six years,with zero network maintenance.
5. Internet speed: Most mobile internet speed, is similar to the dial-up speed of old. It just barely manages email, twitter and facebook, but hardly anything else.