Friday
(0)Is there anything, anything, now going on in what used to be called, either with delicate euphemism or with a sneer, the "developing world", but which now really is the developing world, that is more encouraging than the rapid spread throughout said world of portable telephones?
I have just done a piece for the ASI blog about this process in Africa, linking to this New York Times article. And the Private Sector Development blog (whom I have just added to my personal blogroll here), in addition to supplying the same link today, have also linked to of a recent Economist piece on the same subject. Pablo Halkyard also links to this Wall Street Journal piece.
It is not all good news. It never is. Governments all over the place are now demanding extortionate connection taxes, to the point where the tax bill is starting seriously to outweigh what would have been the regular cost. Sounds like those cheap European air tickets that I sometimes buy on the internet for peanuts, where the government then charges me peanuts times four. Nevertheless, even there the news is partly good, because at least some governments are learning that if they cut connection taxes down to something more in line with the extreme cheapness of the service itself, people are more ready to pay such taxes. That is because illegal phones are more likely to go wrong and harder to get mended if they do go wrong. Is the unwillingness of people to pay big taxes good news or is their willingness to pay small taxes bad news? You decide.
The portable phone quote that made me smile the most this morning was this, from the Economist piece:
(Oh, and the "digital divide" vanishes, too.)
I especially like the brackets.
So, any of you folks going to comment on the antics of this Republican fellow:
"Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham "demanded and received" a bribe from a Pentagon contractor who paid far above market value for the congressman's Del Mar-area home in 2003, according to court documents filed yesterday by federal prosecutors."
Or, since no one is lying about him stuffing anything down his trousers, will his alleged crimes be ignored, in the grand Samizadata tradition of, "It's OK If You're A Republican"?
Posted by Some Other Fellow at August 26, 2005 05:31 PM
because at least some governments are learning that if they cut connection taxes down to something more in line with the extreme cheapness of the service itself, people are more ready to pay such taxes.
There is quite often an inverse relationship between tax rates and tax compliance. High rates always lead to lower compliance and vice versa.
Posted by Shannon Love at August 26, 2005 07:29 PM
"Some other fellow", you are also off-topic and will be deleted in future. You are also a fool, note the following 'pro-Republican' articles:
The economic incoherence of George Bush
Strangely muted comments on Bush's idiotic tariffs
George Bush adds $1,500 to cost of purchasing average new house in USA
Free Trade Area of Americas... but not that free
No Child Left Behind – different lessons to the ones they thought
... and those are just the ones I found with a cursory examination.
Posted by Perry de Havilland at August 27, 2005 02:16 AM
One of the big advantages of cell phone systems over wire-line systems in the third world is that you can't steal air.
Wire-line systems in the third world have enormous problems with people stealing the wire.
Posted by Steven Den Beste at August 27, 2005 02:25 AM
(Link)Its amazing to me that we have people holding cellphones who can hardly afford to live, and being charged .80cents per recharge when a solar charger can be had for $20 and last for years...well I guess we'll have to launch one soon to help people like the woman in the story avoid having to be overcharged (no pun intended) by her neighbor just for the use of the car battery. Sass
Posted by Sass Peress at August 27, 2005 03:39 AM
Sass, one thing that often happens is that in some small village one person buys a cell phone as an investment. Others then pay that person to use it, on a per-call and per-minute basis. It's an example of a micro-business, and often this is financed by a micro-loan.
Posted by Steven Den Beste at August 27, 2005 11:48 AM
I in fact recall reading that India's largest cellular provider bases their business model in part on the practice SDB describes. This was reported in the context of a potential phone order sufficiently large as to drive down the price of chipsets and therefore handsets.
Handsets in India actually tend to be feature-laden. The premise is that adding a camera and MP3 player does little to the price, but such appliances are unaffordable as a standalone.
Posted by triticale at August 27, 2005 02:05 PM
The more people can communicate, the worse for the repressive rulers of so many developing countries. The free flow of information never threatens the free citizen in a free society, only the authoritarian in an unfree society.
Posted by veryretired at August 27, 2005 10:25 PM
