Comments on: Considering connections

By: …My heart’s in Accra » Draft paper on mobile phones and activism

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:12:03 +0000

[...] The M-PESA system has a high degree of centralization and identification – users have to register with Safaricom with a government ID. But other emerging payment via mobile systems look more like hawala, the informal money transfer system used through much of the Middle East and South Asia. Nokia anthropologist Jan Chipchase tells a story about Ugandan mobile phone users: A caller purchases mobile phone airtime cards in a major cities, then calls his home village – he reads the recharge codes to the person in town who owns a mobile phone, giving her the credits to use. She enters the credits into her phone (validating the transaction), then gives a large percentage of the value of the credits to the person of the caller’s choice, usually a member of his family. Systems like this allow for virtually untraceable money transfer, unless phone card vendors are forced to check identification before selling phone cards. [...]

By: David McQueen

David McQueen — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:49:23 +0000

Thanks for your reports on TED this year Ethan

By: Jonathan Marks

Jonathan Marks — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 20:36:49 +0000

It puzzles me that Nokia (and I believe some other manufacturers) have only recently allowed users to download and upgrade the firmware in their phones. Bearing in mind the second-hand market in Asia and Africa, I wonder why I can’t download, say the last firmware version made of the now obsolete 9300. In Holland you have to go to an authorized dealer to get firmware upgrades – and they are usually not interested in supporting obsolete models (i.e. more than 6 months old). The new N-series upgrade software is out there, but not obsolete models long out of warranty. This firmware cannot have any commercial value – or am I missing something? It would certain help the repair shops.