Archive for January 24th, 2008

SIM-Nation: 76.6 Million Mobile Subscribers in Pakistan? Is this good?

Published by Babar Bhatti on January 24, 2008 under Emerging Markets Telecom, blogging

Adil Najam has written an insightful and thought provoking piece on Pakistaniat.com about the real impact of mobile phone growth in Pakistan: SIM-Nation: 76.6 Million Mobile Subscribers in Pakistan? Could this be right? Is this good?.

Here’s an excerpt but please follow the link for full story. The comments are interesting too and the tendency is that “developmental effects have far outweighed any negatives that one might be able to bring up”.

As readers of this blog may recall, I wrote a series of posts about the economic and social impact of telecommunication technology growth in Pakistan.

Should we be really be impressed - in a development perspective - if the number of mobile subscribers are high in a developing country? It certainly signifies good business for the industry, but what does it say about the country and national development?

There are those who argue in the literature that the rapid growth of such services in developing countries signifies the failure of governments in providing essential infrastructure. This argument is far more valid in the water sector.

The point of all of this is to wonder whether cellphone uptake actually translates to an increase of net developmental productivity - i.e., are people able to do more and make more in terms of their livelihoods - or is it that it has become a new “necessity” and “cost.” (For example, “everyone needs a cellphone now because everyone else has it and not having one is a barrier to entry”). If, indeed, it is that a new “need” and “cost” has been created then that only means that the net “cost of living” has gone up. And, especially for the poor more and more of their disposable income is diverted to this “need” that may not be adding to their productivity or livelihood, but not having which would hurt them. This at a time when the cost of living is already high and economic survival at the individual level under stress.