This is an interesting article on Unstrung about growth of Mobile phone users in India, 347 million users, more than the population of the United States of America. Even more jaw-dropping stats is that India added ~113 subscribers in 2008 alone.
I think the mobile revolution in India has great potential to be exploited for the good including education, health-care, etc. It is relatively cheap, you could pay as little as $10 per annum just to keep the connection and ~$0.02 per minute for a local call and ~$0.05 for long distance. Incoming calls and messages are generally free. Also, it is more reliable than land-line and one can carry it anywhere. So, one could send reminders to take medicine, simple math puzzles for kids to solve, etc.
Of course, as with rest of the world, the landline providers are taking a hit; a loss of 150k connections in last month alone.
Filed under: India
