The ‘poor man’s mobile telephone': access<i>versus</i>possession to control the information gap in India

O’Neill, Peter

doi:10.1080/0958493032000123380

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…A handful of multinational corporations (MNCs) monopolized the market, with expensive switches that were unsuitable for India’s tropical climate (Mani, 1989; Srinivasan, 2010). For much of this period, the telephone network of India remained ineffective in providing quality service to users, and with a national tele-density rate (telephone lines per 100 inhabitants) of only 0.3%, India lagged behind other low-income countries across Asia and Africa (O’Neill, 2003; Ray & Ray, 2010; Saha, 2004). Customers experienced poor service quality and long waiting lists for telecommunications service installation because of the triple constraints of highly priced electromagnetic foreign exchanges, mismatch between products designed for foreign urban traffic and Indian requirements, and lack of capacity for designing domestic telecommunications equipment (Malerba & Mani, 2009; Mani, 2005).…”

Section: Findings: C-dotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Sensemaking and Political Connections in Unstable Institutional Contexts

Klarin

Sharmelly

2019

Journal of Management Inquiry

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Emerging economies are often characterized by pervasive institutional changes and resultant institutional voids. In the absence of strong formal institutions, firms rely on informal institutions to fill these voids. This article argues that the process of sensemaking for firms in turbulent environments is continuous and dependent on cyclical adjustments connecting performance via a feedback loop to scanning and interpretation. Far from being a one-time occurrence, environmental sensemaking is a process operating in accord with continuous environmental changes. This study’s findings derive from an in-depth analysis of a Russian pharmaceutical firm and an Indian telecommunications firm, and demonstrate that entrepreneurs make sense and gain legitimacy through political connections. The study further finds that improvements in institutional environments reduce the salience of political networks, thereby creating a choice for firms to rely on formed market mechanisms or continue along the path of political connections that evolve to public–private partnerships.

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Section: Findings: C-dotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Sensemaking and Political Connections in Unstable Institutional Contexts

Klarin

Sharmelly

2019

Journal of Management Inquiry

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“…The case of India illustrates another possible scenario, where the attraction of corDECT has been widely acknowledged as the 'poor man's mobile phone', and whose total subscription increased from about 100,000 in September 2001 to 7.55 million in March 2004 (Department of Telecommunications, 2003-4;O'Neill, 2003).This impressive, but still smaller, scale of growth as compared with Little Smart was achieved under the condition that India's telecom authorities were much more supportive of this limited mobility service than their Chinese counterparts.While the Ministry of Information Industry was trying to curb Little Smart growth, the Indian Department of Telecommunications issued its guidelines endorsing corDECT in 2001 with an explicit goal in enhancing universal service (McDowell and Lee, 2003). However, the institutional framework for telecom policymaking is less centralized in India than it is in China.…”

Section: A Premature Decline?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the institutional framework for telecom policymaking is less centralized in India than it is in China. Subsequently, mobile operators in India were able to launch a legal challenge against the right of landline operators to provide a limited mobility service (O'Neill, 2003), something China Mobile and China Unicom were unable to do. Given the lower average income in India, the market demand was also smaller.…”

Section: A Premature Decline?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The accidental accomplishment of Little Smart: understanding the emergence of a working-class ICT

Qiu

2007

New Media & Society

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This article analyzes one of China's most prominent workingclass ICTs, Little Smart (xiaolingtong), an inexpensive wireless technology which offers limited mobility service at the price of a landline.The case analysis examines how the technology works and diffuses, why it could emerge so rapidly amid structural transformations of China's telecom reform and the subsequent co-evolution between market dynamics and state policy at the local, national and transnational levels. Drawing from interviews and focus groups, the article discusses usage patterns and the key problems facing Little Smart. Besides the particularities of the case, the emergence of Little Smart has broader implications for understanding the relationship between working-class ICTs and the 'information have-nots' in general. It shows that workingclass ICTs may materialize through accidental accomplishments with little prior planning by state or corporate players. However, without appropriate policy support, the emergence may not be sustainable in the long run.

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“…Though a full review of these approaches is beyond the scope of this article, these include regulatory levers, such as South Africa's phone shop requirement, flexible franchise models for rural GSM service (Engvall & Hesselmark 2004), and the pursuit of alternative satellite or WiFi/WiMAX technologies to support rural/remote connectivity (O'Neill 2003). These solutions require skillful collaboration between and integration with existing services so as to best balance the needs of all stakeholders.…”

Section: Telephone Non-usersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The social and economic implications of mobile telephony in Rwanda: An ownership/access typology

Donner

2006

Know Techn Pol

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In Jonathan Donner's study of Rwandan users, the mobile phone is an expensive and treasured item, used in the main by small individual businessmen and women, where it has the power to expand the horizons of their business and open up their workplace and work schedule, allowing them to organise their work effectively in a way previously unthinkable. In one case documented by Donner, a small restaurateur is able to develop, via the mobile phone, the kind of simple 'just-in-time' stock control management and delivery techniques that large corporations spend millions on IT systems and consultancy to replicate at their scale. At either end of the scale, the business impact of the technology is simple, and is experienced by both Donner's Rwandan restaurateur and large multinational corporations alike. The technology provides a freedom to move through time and space and stay connected to the business, to make decisions for the business, and to run the business according to an ever-changing micro-schedule.

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The ‘poor man’s mobile telephone': accessversuspossession to control the information gap in India

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Strategic Sensemaking and Political Connections in Unstable Institutional Contexts

Strategic Sensemaking and Political Connections in Unstable Institutional Contexts

The accidental accomplishment of Little Smart: understanding the emergence of a working-class ICT

The social and economic implications of mobile telephony in Rwanda: An ownership/access typology

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