Over the last couple days, we rented a car to drive from Johannesburg to the coastal city of Durban. On our eight hour trip, we drove through a range of landscapes -- small villages, industrial towns, sometimes driving miles on end without a sign of development aside from the road ahead. What amazed me the most was not the beauty of the landscape or the simplicity of the towns, but the signal strength of my cell phone.
We were deep in the remote valleys of South Africa and I had full service throughout the entire drive. I'm not able to visit my family in the highly developed suburb of Washington DC without having to dance around the house, looking for that perfect spot that allows me to make a call. Even then, eight times out of ten, my call gets dropped midway through the conversation. It is astonishing that in one of the most developed and wealthy cities in the world I have trouble using my cell, yet I can be in an isolated region of South Africa and have full network strength.
This isn't surprising according to the article on CNN.com, Africans Get Upwardly Mobile in Cell Phone Boom. With almost 25 million cell phone subscribers, it is evident that the cell phone is a more accessible and useful tool in the South Africa region than the landline. In developing countries, the cell phone is not only used as a communication tool, but also as a resource to provide information on areas such as education and health care. The article makes the point of stating that "wireless technology is far more widely used in Africa than in Europe and the United States... Technological adoption has been much more rapid in Africa in the past five years than the past 20 or 30 years in Europe." Because of this, the United States and other developed countries are still relying on older infrastructures, while the emerging markets like South Africa have increased their advancements around mobile technology.
It makes me wonder, in a country with such a strong cellular infrastructure, how can we provide easier access so that more South Africans can take advantage of the technology in place? Is simply giving communities handsets enough? Is it only a cost barrier or is it more complicated that that? Hopefully, these are questions that we will be able to provide answers to in the upcoming weeks.
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