India as the largest growth in cellphone usage?

India is really a huge market for all cell phone companies. Point to b noted the population of India is too high than other countries so obviously cell phone users are increasing day by day.

They seem to enjoy the phones. I used to read the Nokia (India - in English) forums.
Sometimes you got better answers about the actual phone than you did on Nokia - US

A lot of their posts had to do with the social networking apps that were just appearing.

I wonder what a carrier's service center does - do they do service in a common idiom, or does the service have a number for each dialect?

cell phones are not a necessity.

batgeek said:

cell phones are not a necessity.

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They certainly are a necessity many parts of India, much of rural China, where I am, and many other emerging economies. Because they give people their own way communicating, getting information and entertainment. Cellphones and carrier service are cheap. Many people in these countries don't own their own computers with broadband internet, and the only other way of communicating, getting information and entertainment is radio, TV, payphones, internet bars and printed newspapers/magazines.

Back in February, I spent the Spring Festival with friends in a remote mountain village in western Hubei Province. NO computers and wired broadband except for the village internet bar and a laptop I brought with me. It was very poor and extremely basic to say the least, however just about everyone had a cellphone. Although there was no 3G coverage here, CDMA and GSM/EDGE only.

i disagree.

batgeek said:

i disagree.

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I assume you've never spent time living in an emerging country like India or China.

Say you've got no cellphone, you're too poor to afford a PC, cable, DSL or even dial-up internet is NOT available or is too costly, and not much good without a PC anyway. How would you communicate, get information, etc? TV, radio, post, printed newspapers, public payphones?

Inside a typical village house in Hubei Province, China.

That TV set is basically the only modern technology here, plus cheap cellphones, that's it, nothing else. The pink bowl on the right is where you get washed in the morning and evening, clean your teeth etc, WC is in the stable outside. As I said, if you have no cellphone, how would you communicate, get information etc, just watch TV and post letters perhaps?

you assume incorrectly.

as i said, they aren't a necessity since the majority of people that live in rural areas in an "emerging" country don't necessarily have a need for instant communication or information gathering.

they've gotten by in the past without it, it is just a luxury.

even in the US, in rural areas of Virginia, W. Virginia, and Tennessee i've visited, many people don't have...or even need...a cell phone. i've been there. i've hiked there. i've ridden trails there. they get by just fine without.

luxury. not a necessity.

I agree. Sure it improves the quality of life and if you asked one of these people if it was a necessity, they would say yes. Removing it would not kill them. It may kill their business if they had one though

batgeek said:

you assume incorrectly.

as i said, they aren't a necessity since the majority of people that live in rural areas in an "emerging" country don't necessarily have a need for instant communication or information gathering.

they've gotten by in the past without it, it is just a luxury.

even in the US, in rural areas of Virginia, W. Virginia, and Tennessee i've visited, many people don't have...or even need...a cell phone. i've been there. i've hiked there. i've ridden trails there. they get by just fine without.

luxury. not a necessity.

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Well in that case, isn't electricity a luxury and not a necessity? We survived for thousands of years without it, and millions of people around the world still have no electricity.

yes. electricity is a luxury.

Depends on the country. In the UK, electricity is a given. It's a standard for nearly 100 years. A baseline has been taken and it has been given the status of necessity by law. As has a tv and a sofa. However, mobile communications have not

i can jump in my truck and drive 50 miles to the Eastern Shore of Virginia and visit entire towns that do not have city electricity or city water and sewage. and there are people living there!!!

SUroot said:

given the status of necessity by law. As has a tv and a sofa.

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you Brits are a funny lot!

batgeek said:

yes. electricity is a luxury.

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We can certainly live without things like cellphones, electricity, gas, internet, televisions, radios, sofas, mains water and sewage, etc. but on the other hand they certainly improve the quality of our lives and can help us immensely.

exactly. thus they are not a necessity.

Thing is, what is a luxury and what is a necessity for modern living? We need to eat and drink, so that's a necessity. I guess we could all just go back to wearing animal skins and living in caves?

I noticed in the original story, that China has the second largest growth in cellphone usage. I can quite understand that as well. I'm sure even in the remotest, poorest villages, there's always at least one China Mobile dealer, while sometimes they get their drinking water from rivers, lakes or wells. What's the world's largest carrier by number of subscribers....?

...no surprises here.

Easier for gov. mandates and snooping if everyone has a cell. Otherwise, someone would have to go to a rather primitive village and do all this in person and discomfort.

What I said does seem funny but its true. If you owe money, a bailiff can forcibly gain entry to your home (after satisfying a few requirements) and take anything of value. Except by law, they are not allowed to take your sofa, bed, clothes or tv.

It used to be if you didn't pay your water or electricity bill, if you have children they could not cut you off. I believe they extended this to.broadband too

I think in India there are a lot of rural areas where people have extended family, Indian people tend to be very family orientated even with grand parents, in comparison to much of the western world where we tend to do our own thing / escape from family . We also see in the west, the emergence of new operators such as Lyca mobile offering good rates for calling abroad.

!on said:

I think in India there are a lot of rural areas where people have extended family, Indian people tend to be very family orientated even with grand parents, in comparison to much of the western world where we tend to do our own thing / escape from family . We also see in the west, the emergence of new operators such as Lyca mobile offering good rates for calling abroad.

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It's very much the same here in China. Where's there's a very large migratory population, that might only see close family once or twice a year, they've usually travelled for work or education.

At my senior high-school, we have over 3,000 boarding students, many of whom are hundreds of kilometres from home. They only go home twice a year for Spring Festival and summer. Similar with many other schools in China. They all have cellphones with internet access. I think for them cellphones are pretty much a necessity to stay in touch with family and friends. The only alternative would be to write and send letters (snail mail). No students have their own laptops at the school, and school PCs with internet access are for academic use only.

Similarly with my friend from Badong, Hubei Province, whom I spent the Spring Festival with. Her large family, including grandparents live in Hubei Province, yet she lives and works in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, which is a long 24 hour train or bus journey away(flying is expensive in China, trains and buses are cheap but much slower). She only goes home twice a year. All members of her family have cellphones, again I think the only alternative way of communicating would be to write and send letters.

While cellphones are not an absolute necessity, they surely make these people's lives much better.

Myself, I'm certainly a long way from home. Thanks to things like Lyca, Skype Out, etc. it's very easy and cheap for friends in the UK to call me at any time. Certainly wouldn't be without a cellphone now.

I read once that India has more cellphones than toilets.

Based on my experience in another developing country, cellphones are considered necessity. We have a general store here and I see even the poorest neighbor always buy load for their cell phone. That is why we are the texting capital of the world because we have cheap prepaid load here.

Sprawsum said:

I read once that India has more cellphones than toilets.

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Not surprising really, many people in developing countries will be sharing a communal toilet.

Sprawsum said:

Based on my experience in another developing country, cellphones are considered necessity. We have a general store here and I see even the poorest neighbor always buy load for their cell phone. That is why we are the texting capital of the world because we have cheap prepaid load here.

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I would actually argue that cellphones are probably very important for developing and emerging countries. As important as radio, TV or electricity. More important than traditional landline telephones, which can be rather expensive or are just not available to these people and places.

BTW this is one of our school cellphone charging stations...

...because there are NO power outlets in the student's dorm rooms