by Jen O Neill
I recently returned from holiday in Mozambique. It was my first holiday in Africa and I had a fantastic time. I’d love to return to the country.
The country left many impressions on me. Amazing sand dunes, stunning beaches, extraordinary trees, friendly people, good food, night skies full of stars due to no light pollution. And the mobile phone.
The communication challenge
Mozambique is a poor country, although it now has one of the world’s fastest growing economies thanks to its natural resources. The average monthly income is only around 3000 meticais, about $100 dollars (source: CIA World Factbook). It came out of a brutal civil war 20 years ago with much of its infrastructure badly damaged.
Prior to the arrival of the mobile phone in the country, getting in touch with anyone was often time consuming as both the postal and landline phone services in the country are poor and unreliable. Today, almost twice as many people have access to a mobile phone than have access to the national electrical grid.
The big advantage of the mobile phone is that it makes you easily reachable. It has thrown open the communication doors!
The pre-paid mobile phone is the biggest social revolution to have hit Africa
The mobile phone was visible everywhere on my trip. Women selling vegetables or fish in the local markets had them, city workers walked around with them in their hand at all times. There were many shops selling cheap simple phones as well as second hand ones. I didn’t see many smart phones during my trip but it’s possible that those with smart phones are driving around everywhere rather than walking.
It’s incredibly easy to buy credit for pre-paid phones as young boys are always walking around the streets wearing the brightly coloured vests of the two major mobile providers, selling the credit. I bought mine while sitting in a café. I spent 50 meticais (1.30 euros) on credit for my phone. But it cost me 350 meticais (9 euros) to buy five postcards. Obviously Mozambicans don’t use postcards to communicate with each other!
Business is so much easier now with mobile connections. I met a tour guide in Velankulos (1000 km north of Maputo) who ran his one-man business with just a simple Nokia feature phone. No office, no web site, just a phone number. Everything done in the street. Yet his tour business is listed in the main travel books on the country. He’s just one of thousands who have benefited from the digital era.
The future is mobile
Although both 2G and 3G mobile networks are available in Mozambique, the vast majority of customers still use 2G. The main reason is cost. 2G is much cheaper to use and currently more reliable. Few people, particularly outside of large towns, have personal computers. Computers are expensive, they require electricity and you need to know how to use them. Many people don’t have access to electricity at home and pay local shops/kiosks to charge their phones. To access the internet, they often use public access points such as internet cafés.
As G3 becomes more reliable and cheaper outside of the capital city, Maputo, it is obvious that the future of communications in the country is mobile. When compared to a computer, the mobile phone is cheaper, flexible, portable, easier to use, task specific and less reliant on the state of the country’s infrastructure.
The digital divide is shrinking
Other African countries are much further along the digital route than Mozambique. Kenya is often cited as a country that is making rapid progress in the digital era. An interesting report on what’s happening there is Why Kenya is the next tech capital: 2013 Sector Trends Online Social Mobile.
I live in a world of high tech, high-speed internet, data overload, where the latest smart phones can cost the equivalent of eight months of income in Mozambique. Visiting Mozambique made me see another side of our digital era. Nascent and rapidly evolving, adapting to local communication needs. The digital divide is rapidly closing.
