Mobile phone revolution

Crtd 05-12-11 Lastedit 15-09-14

The Mobile Phone Revolution

Though the GSM mobile system changed much in western countries, this can not be compared to the revolution it brought to Africa.
Rural families who would not have any news from their children for months, now can talk every day. SMS text messaging is extremely popular.
The density of cell phone is amazing. In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania coverage was over 90% of the population in 2005 and over 50% of families had a cell phone. Many of them have no electricity and go to a more wealthy neighbour for charging. Since this immedeately became accepted practise, the mini sun panels like the one on the picture are rarely seen.

Photo: GSM phone with mini sun panel.
All day charging on the panel kept up
with normal power use in state of the art 2003

Africans find it normal to spend a lot of time waiting for each other. Nowadays any setbacks in meeting an agreement can be reported at once. In business, orders can be placed more quickly and easily, problems reported, mistakes corrected. Broken vehicles can be reported and repaired more quickly, taxis and ambulances called. All this used to be completely out of reach of the ordinary African before 1997.

GSM saves a lot time so most Africans feel they finally get the opportunity to have a good rest.