1. The Social and Economic
Implications of
Mobile Telephony in Rwanda
Jonathan Donner
Presentation : Anousha Fluck

2. Main area of exploration:
How the digital divide in Rwanda has created alternative uses for the mobile
phone, such as the phenomenon of ‘Beeping’

3. List of top smart phone penetration rates
• Rank . Country . . . . . Population . . Subs . Sm'phones . Migr.Rt . . Per Capita
1 . . . . Singapore . . . . . . . . . 4.9 . . . 8.1 . . . 4.4 . . . . 54% . . . . 90%
2 . . . . Hong Kong *** . . . . . 8.0 . . . 14.0 . . . 4.9 . . . . 35% . . . . 61%
3 . . . . Sweden . . . . . . . . . . 9.3 . . . 13.6 . . . 4.8 . . . . 35% . . . . 52%
4 . . . . Australia . . . . . . . . . 21.6 . . . 29.8 . . . 10.2 . . . . 34% . . . . 47%
5 . . . . Spain . . . . . . . . . . . 45.5 . . . 58.9 . . . 20.8 . . . . 35% . . . . 46%
tie 6 . . Denmark * . . . . . . . 5.5 . . . 7.6 . . . 2.4 . . . . 32% . . . . 44%
tie 6 . . Israel *** . . . . . . . . 7.0 . . . 11.0 . . . 3.1 . . . . 28% . . . . 44%
tie 8 . . Finland * . . . . . . . . 5.4 . . . 9.6 . . . 2.3 . . . . 24% . . . . 43%
tie 8 . . Norway * . . . . . . . . 4.9 . . . 6.2 . . . 2.1 . . . . 34% . . . . 43%
10 . . . New Zealand ** . . . . 4.3 . . . 5.5 . . . 1.8 . . . . 33% . . . . 42%
•
• http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/12/smartphone-
penetration-rates-by-country-we-have-good-data-finally.html

4. Rwanda

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lOSL1KyeG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIGEg2PDbMA

8. Digital Divide
• Jan van Dijk and Kenneth Hacker (2003) distinguish
four barriers to access to digital services.
• Lack of elementary digital experience
• No possession of computers and network connections
• Lack of digital skills
• Lack of significant opportunities -> In the case of
Rwanda there is a lack of usage access.
• http://vis4.net/blog/posts/mapping-internet-and-
population/

9. Beeping by Donner
• Mobile’s feature is connectivity. The benefits are both positive economic and social changes.
• powerful technique to maximize the benefits of a mobile whilst minimizing money
expenditure

11. • In Rwanda users have taken this to next level
by diversifying this practice. There are three
kinds of beeping
• Call back
• Pre-negotiated instrumental
• Relational

12. • allowing users to feel connected.
• It is a “phatic communication” signaling the
existence of a relationship or communication
channel.

13. mobiles are rewriting the spatial and temporal
constraints of all manner of human
communications – whether for working family,
or recreation and entertainment
• http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/27/tech/mobil
e-culture-usage/index.html

14. However…
However:
• Smart phones are still not fully exploited
• no location based services (LBS) – which makes navigation,
maps, google maps relies on LBS to find destinations
• lack of apple-supported networks e.g. Iphones do not
recognize phone number if it comes with a country code –
comes up with ID-mismatch
• Lack of app development – more work on SM based
solutions to help similar phones do things like buying
power, use twitter, interact with banks.
• Andriod is more popular
• Combined with limited number of people with purchasing
power to buy apps.

15. Discussion
• 1. Form groups 2. discuss with class
• When you wake up in the morning how long is
it until you use your mobile or Internet?
• How would you feel if your mobile and Internet
was taken off you for 3 days?
• Do you think you could organize your life without
your mobile?
• Choose one question and
• Tweet #MDIA5003 your answer

16. bibliography
• Mobile Telephony in Rwanda: An Ownership/Access Typology, Kowledge, Technology, & Policy, 2006, vol.19, No.2,pp.17-28
•
•
• Donner, J (2007), The rules of beeping: Exchanging messages via international “missed calls” on mobile phone, Journal of Computer Mediated
Communication, 13(1), article 1.http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donner.html
•
• Jan van Dijk & Kenneth Hacker (2003): The Digital Divide as a Complex and Dynamic Phenomenon, The Information Society: An International
Journal, 19:4, 315-326
•
• Aisch, G , ‘Visualiziing the Global Digital Divide by Mapping Internet and Population’, 21/10/2011,accessed
5/10/2012, http://vis4.net/blog/posts/mapping-internet-and-population/
• our bibliography should look something like this – LastName, FirstName.(Month Day, Year).'Title of the Article' Retrived Month Day, Year from the
website: http://www.abcde.com
•
•
• TheVJMovement, ‘Rwandan Farmers Empowered by Mobile Access to Market Prices’, April 12, 2011, accessed 4/10/2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lOSL1KyeG0
•
•
• Canton N, 20120, ‘Cell phone culture: How cultural differences affect mobile use’, September 28, 2012, accessed
4/10/2012,http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/27/tech/mobile-culture-usage/index.html
•
• December 12, 2011, Smartphone Penetration Rates by Country, accessed 7/10/12, shttp://communities-
dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/12/smartphone-penetration-rates-by-country-we-have-good-data-finally.html
•
• Bight E, 2012, ‘Smartphone still not fully exploited in Rwanda’, Monday April 30th 2012, accessed 7/10/12
• http://focus.rw/wp/2012/04/smartphones-still-not-fully-exploited-in-rwanda/