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Granted, I really do need to get out and see the world. But I had thought that 'burner' cell phones were quite ubiquitous in the developing world?
by eblume 14y ago
Granted, I really do need to get out and see the world. But I had thought that 'burner' cell phones were quite ubiquitous in the developing world?
- grecy 14y agoSure they are. Anywhere in the developing world that has power to run a cell tower clearly doesn't need to be extracting power from urine.
- joe_the_user 14y agoI would assume running wires to a few cell towers considerably cheaper than running wires to many villages. Indeed, isn't that why cell phones themselves are much more common than landlines in rural Africa?
- grecy 14y agoNo, it's because many developing countries "skipped" a technology. They missed out on land-lines because they were undeveloped, and now they have electricity and infrastructure, they jump straight to cell phones. For this reason, countries like Ecuador, Guatemala, etc. Have cell phone rates higher than developed countries like Australia and the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_...
- joe_the_user 14y agoJeesh, it's like you're missing the trees for the forest here. Skipping technologies is the pattern but there's a reason for pattern. Developing countries don't skip technologies out of a desire for hopscotch or something. They skip wired tech because copper wires are expensive, their expense doesn't go down over time in contrast with the increasing sophistication of chips. Conventional phone lines and electrical power are both wired tech. Thus both are harder in third world conditions.