66 Telecom Landscape load all these apps. She also used viber to chat with her friends. However, a majority of the MEs did not have internet on their phone and did not even know how to use it. One ME used internet to get updated on football scores. Chan (Strawberry seller, Yangon) found it difficult to use Viber but used internet to find out about the football score. He was also interested in joining Facebook as he had heard a lot about it through friends. 5.5 PAYMENT AND EXPENDITURE MEs reported a monthly expenditure between 2500 kyats ($ 2.5) and 45,000 kyats ($45) on mobile phone. Top up cards were mostly available for 5000 kyats or 10,000 kyats. MEs commonly bought the 5000 kyats top up cards. They expressed their wish to buy top up cards which are less than 5000 kyats. “I get a top-up card of 5,000 kyats but finds it very expensive. 2000-2500 kyats top-up card would be better for me.” (Htut, Carpenter, Mandalay). MMK 5000 GSM top up card Incoming calls were free but for every outgoing call they were charged MMK 50 per minute and for each message MMK 25. As per Kyaw (Flower seller, Mandalay) MMK 20-30 per minute for an outgoing call and MMK 3000 ($3) top-up card would be good for her. “Phone bill could be very fantastic if call rate is 30 kyats per minute.” Thein (charcoal seller, Mawlamying) felt that it would be nice if call rates could go down to MMK 25 “50 is little too much, 25 would be okay.” 5.6 ALTERNATIVES TO OWNING A PHONE Road side MPT PCO stall Those who did not have a phone used either neighbour’s phone or PCO to make and receive calls and paid different charges for PCO varying from MMK 100 ($0.1) per minute to MMK 200 ($0.2) per 3 minutes for an incoming call and MMK 200 ($0.2) per minute to MMK 400 per minute ($0.4) for an outgoing call. Lily (coconut coir rope making, Mawlamying) received calls on neighbour’s phone and did not pay anything for receiving calls. She never made any calls herself. Mya (tailor, Mandalay) used neighbour’s phone to make and receive calls from her customers. She needed to pay MMK 150-200 ($0.15-0.2) per minute to make a call using neighbourhood phone and MMK 100 ($0.1) for incoming call irrespective of the duration.