Mobile phones the technology with the greatest impact?

The Star Tribune last week included a piece from The Economist that addresses the problem of the digital divide (“Which comes first, cellular or the net?” Tuesday, March 15, 2005). Some interesting points mentioned in the article include the UN’s new “Digital Solidarity Fund” to fight exclusion from the information society. The article goes on to suggest that mobile phones are emerging as the technology with the greatest impact on development. Mobile telephony is a cheap and flexible technology that greatly improves communications and does not require that users necessarily be able to read or write. But, is that all there is? The article seems to conveniently ignore the fact that the digital divide is not only about being able to “reach out and touch someone”. Mobile telephony certainly is a step forward but it’s still a long way from being able to take part and benefit from the “information society”. The real purpose of the article is revealed in the last paragraph – “Rather than trying to close the digital divide through top-down IT infrastructure projects, governments in the developing world should open their telecom markets. Then firms and customers, on their own and even in the poorest countries, will close the divide themselves.” Does this mean that if Vodafone and T-Mobile are let in that they’ll take care of “the problem”?