March 13, 2007
Renting out Phone Minutes in India
In India, a man is seen pushing a cart loaded with two coin-operated public telephones along the streets of Hyderabad. Powered by batteries, these telephones were bought from a telecommunication company at a cost of $170. At the end of the day, he gets to keep half of the "mobile booth" earnings.
[via Spluch]
Elsewhere:
-- Renting cell phone minutes in Mongolia - Jan Chipchase on Future Perfect reports on how individuals rent out phone minutes in Mongolia.
-- Grameen's Village Phone Program Is providing good business opportunities for more than 260,000 Village Phone operators, mostly poor rural women, all across the country.
-- mobile phone booths in narobi Childhood polio has confined both men in this video to wheelchairs. Now they have a mobile phone business thanks to their goverment. The introduction of these mobile fixed phones made that possible. The phone is connected to a mobile phone network in Kenya and works like any fixed phone. So every day they place themselves where they expect to attract the most customers who need to make a phone call.
-- Rickshaws connect India's poor A regional mobile phone company in India, Shyam Telecom, has equipped a fleet of rickshaws with a mobile phone. Drivers pedal these mobile payphones throughout the state capital, Jaipur, and the surrounding countryside.
-- Uganda's new bike payphones In an effort to bring telecommunication closer to Ugandans, MTN publiCom has unveiled its latest payphone innovation mounted on a four-wheeled cycle.
-- Phone Bikes in Kamapala A mobile and wireless phone kiosk in Kamapala draws its power from a car battery. Despite its bicyclesque design they were not particularly mobile - one or more tyres were often flat and they remained tethered in one place for the duration of the day.
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