the i-witnesses

VoIP: the cheaper way to connect

Using the internet to talk to each other – with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) – has huge potential in developing countries. It can dramatically cut high communication costs, as well encourage individuals to stay in touch with each other.

For example, rural villages can be connected even if they don’t have direct phone line connections. And I can now speak to my mother in Chennai, India for a fraction of the cost of using a UK landline provider – I pay as little as £5 for three hours.

Sadly, developing country governments have been reluctant to open up this market as it threatens the revenue from state-owned telecom industries.

Last month, Pakistan issued a ban on all ‘illegal’ uses of VoIP (seemingly anything outside call centres). And Bangladesh this week announced it would take ‘stern actions’ against the use of VoIP for overseas calls, though has plans to legalise some aspects.

It seems that supposedly democratic states are forcing their citizens to pay more just to talk to each other – what an irony!

Southern superpowers: challenging our notions of development

Gone are the days when developing countries depended on Western developed societies for skill and technology transfers. The emerging superpowers of India and China are – in my view – already offering tough competition to western markets in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Here are three examples:

1. India’s Reliance Communications plans to build a submarine cable around the east coast of Africa to rival the continent’s own much-delayed EASSy plan. A subsidiary company will invest USD 1.5 billion in building the world’s largest internet network, covering 60 countries.

2. The Indian government is ‘donating’ USD 1 billion to connect 53 African countries through satellite and fibre-optic technologies to increase exchanges on (tele)medicine.

3. China is reported to be constructing 2000 km of optical-fibre network in Uganda to increase local connectivity.

These are just business plans (even the donation, I suspect) and may well need refining. But such partnerships would mean more economic activity within the South, and represent a massive shift in the traditional North-South paradigm of global economic development.

And, although they rely on existing expertise – for decades India has excelled in medicine, for example – of course, it’s ICTs that are opening up endless opportunities in sharing and learning.

The reality of India’s IT challenge

A couple of days ago, I got a call from a British journalist based in India who wanted to do a story on India’s achievements in the IT sector. It was triggered by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown’s official visit this week.

Mr Brown’s itinerary includes a pilgrimage to one of India’s modern temples: the call centre. The Indian press exports glitzy images of call centres that tell of the country’s progress and wealth (while the Western media complains of foreign call centres “taking our jobs away”).

But this is a scene completely unfamiliar to millions of Indians: agriculture is still the dominant sector. So while I accept that call centres make a lot of money, I don’t believe they are the solution to India’s problems. As I see it, the real challenge is how the IT sector can be used to enhance agro-based livelihoods.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll see a different story from my journalist friend!

The new wave of mobile activism

OK, Wakabi - I owe you an apology for this long silence! A belated happy new year to you and everyone who reads this blog!

I have been hearing – especially over the last month – lots of ‘evidence’ about the use of the internet and mobile phones for social activism.

For example, www.indianfemalefoeticide.org (an odd choice of name, I must admit) raises awareness to stop sex-selective abortion in India. The site has so far received 750 ‘complaints’ to end this brutal act, which it then passes on to the authorities.

Meanwhile www.mobileactive.org, a US-based web portal, encourages the use of mobile phones for civic action and engagement. It is building up a series of ‘strategy guides’ to show how activists and campaigners can become mobile-active.

And it seems that ICT-related development projects are also taking on a political and activism theme. The African organisation Fahamu is helping rural women in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa to report incidences of violence against them and children – and violations of land rights – via SMS technology.

There are no doubt many more examples out there – what’s happening in your country?