64
Telecom Landscape
(bicycle repair, Yangon) who did not have a phone currently but expressed her desire to
buy a smartphone so that her daughter could also play games on it. “I do not not want
keyboard like phone beacuse my daughter cannot play game on it.”Cho (designs longyis
with thread, Mandalay) expressed her willingess to buy a MMK 80,000 ($80) worth touch
screen phone so that her son could play games on it. Her son was saving MMK 1000 ($1)
everyday in a safe box to buy a phone.
5.3 USAGE PATTERN
Application to check balance offline on Naing’s phone
All the MEs interviewed and owned a phone, largely used their phone to call their relatives, friends, business associates and to be in touch with their customers. Since it was
hard to make a distinction between the use of mobile phone for social purposes vs. business related use due to large overlap between social/familial and livelihood networks as
many MEs relied on support from within their own household for the business (labor, finance, etc) so there was no great need for business communication across distance except
few cases.
Hlaing contacted his clients through his phone
Two MEs, Chan (strawberry seller, Yangon) and Aung (dumpling seller, Yangon) used
their phone for business such as informing their suppliers of their needs. Thet (wood
sculptor, Mandalay) used his phone to inform his customers when their order was ready.
Htay (the electrician , Naypidaw) called up his customers to inform them if their appliance
was repaired. He had his number printed on his visiting card and a lot of his customers
contacted him if they could not come to his shop. Htwe (souvenir maker, Naypidaw) contacted his bamboo, wood and cane supplier through phone. Phyu (the tailor, Naypidaw)
used her personal phone as a pay phone and charged MMK 100 per minute ($0.1) for outgoing and MMK 50 per minute ( $0.5) for incoming call. Zaw (journal seller, Naypidaw)
called on the call center number 1876 to enquire about the football score at MMK 300 per
minute ($0.3 per minute).He also contacted the publishing house in Yangon if he needed
any new journals or newspapers. If he placed the order, the owner of the publishing house
would send the journals in the morning bus to the distributor’s shop in Naypyidaw. He
also listened to the literary campaigns by a monk who talked about how to face challenges
in life. Naing (Plaster statue maker, Bago) used his phone to call customers, suppliers and
used offlince applications to check his balance, click pictures and share music files with