Mobile Phone Seen to Alter Power Relations in Africa

The mobile phone is becoming the most pervasive technology in Africa and in the Third World in general. It is poised to prove the most robust means for the powerless to voice out. The industrialised countries may be approaching saturation in mobile phone growth, but in the developing world, the story that is unfolding is one of expansion. In 2010 alone, the market in the Third World grew ten times more than in the developed world.

In Tanzania, 62 per cent of the population uses mobile phones, according to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA). It seems cheap handsets and least hassle-free acquisition of SIM cards will fan the upward trend for a long foreseeable future...

...The bottom line is that the mobile phone is the fastest growing technology in Africa and the new communication technology of choice across a large section of the population as opposed to the Internet and television. Soon, virtually every Tanzanian will be using a mobile phone...