Manifestations, Drivers, and Frictions of Mobile Phone Use in Low- and Middle-Income Settings: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Rural India and China

Abstract

Against the backdrop of alleged mobile phone ubiquity and the enthusiasm about the developmental value of mobile technology, this paper examines the manifestations, drivers, and frictions of mobile phone use in two low- and middle-income settings where mobile technology has diffused rapidly. Qualitative data from 231 participants and survey data from 800 adults in rural Rajasthan and Gansu provide consistent and strong support for the claim that the notion of ‘ubiquity’ can mislead development practice because it obscures persistent non-use, under-utilisation, and heterogeneous engagement with mobile technology despite its apparently wide accessibility in rural field sites. The paper suggests avenues for further work on the indicators of technology adoption, and it cautions that phone-based development interventions (and their benefits) may diffuse unevenly if the assumption of ubiquitous technology use is violated.

Acknowledgements

I thank Felix Reed-Tsochas, Proochista Ariana, Xiaolan Fu, and Gari Clifford for helpful discussions in relation to research design and implementation. I further received excellent research assistance from IIHMR, Public Health Foundation of India, and Seva Mandir in Rajasthan, especially SD Gupta, Nutan Jain, Arindam Das, Jagjeet Prasad Singh, Vidya Bhushan Tripathi, Matadin Sharma, Paridhi Jain, and Pushpa Paliwal; and from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the School of Public Health at Lanzhou University in China, especially Liu Xingrong, Li Hong Min, Li Jian, and Wang Wei in Gansu. The raw data and Stata code are available on request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Aggregate result of search queries ‘mobile phones have become ubiquitous’ | ‘mobile phones are now ubiquitous’ | ‘mobile phones are ubiquitous’ (61,800 results), ‘cell phones have become ubiquitous’ | ‘cell phones are now ubiquitous’ | ‘cell phones are ubiquitous’ (53,200 results), and ‘smartphones have become ubiquitous’ | ‘smartphones are now ubiquitous’ | ‘smartphones are ubiquitous’ (18,100 results) on 23 May 2016. Other combinations of ranged from 16,000 to 42,800 results each.

2. I thank the Editor for bringing this point to my attention.

3. The research was approved by the Oxford Department of International Development’s Departmental Research Ethics Committee (Ref. SSD/CUREC1A/13–199 and CUREC1A/ODID C1A 14–031), by the Gansu Province Department of Statistics (Ref. 2013/10 and 2014/8), and by the internal ethics commission of the Indian Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur.

Additional information

Funding

This research arises from research funded by the John Fell Oxford University Press (OUP) Research Fund [Ref. 122/670]. I gratefully acknowledge financial support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council [Ref. SSD/2/2/16]; the Scatcherd European Scholarship [Ref. GAF1213_SES_511446]; the Oxford Department of International Development; the University of Oxford Vice-Chancellors’ Fund; and Hertford College.