Technology in the Developing World

When I started this blog I made a promise to myself: for the next two or so years I was going to keep this blog up. I would not let this blog become one of the many cyberspace cobwebs that often happens when bloggers forget or lose interest in their pages. But this promise was made in the US, before I realized how difficult this task could be.

Now, this post isn’t meant to convey that I am giving up on this blog. As I write this post I realize that the last time I updated this blog was in March and when I started this blog I thought I would be updating it more regularly and I felt this was a good time to tackle the topic of technology.

Technology is a funny thing in a developing country. For example, everyone in Lesotho has a cell phone. There are many time when I will tell Basotho, for various reasons, that I do not have a phone and therefore no phone number to give out. And when they ask me why I tell them that I am a volunteer and therefore have no money to buy a phone. I doubt most of them believe this response and usually respond by telling me that they will buy me a phone so that we can keep in touch. Phones are very cheap in Lesotho. Most Peace Corps volunteers here buy a basic phone: no QWERTY keyboard but one that is able to do email, basic Internet functions, and a camera. This phone is about R300. Now most Basotho don’t have the need for such a fancy phone so they have a phone with a basic, no-color screen, with no internet, camera, or any other fancy gadgets. This phone can cost less than R100 (about $12). On the other end of the spectrum are the smart phones such as BlackBerrys (which a lot of volunteers, such as myself, have).

And cell phone companies work very differently in Lesotho than in the US. There is almost no concept of a contract; everything is prepaid. You can buy whatever Rand of airtime (or data) you would like as often as you would like. And you can buy SIM cards anywhere for about R5. No passports required, no form of identification, nothing. In other words, getting a phone in Lesotho is really easy. And this turns out to be a really good thing because, unlike America, very few places in Lesotho have land lines. I’m not sure how people did it before cell phones (and can I also mention that I am very happy I came here after cell phones became a common commodity).

But as I said, technology in a funny thing in a developing world. When I left America, 6 months back, people were starting to talk 4G. In Lesotho the fastest speed is 3G and that is only in Maseru (the capital) and in towns. At my site I only get 2G cell phone service which is very slow. As I said, I have a blackberry, and I am able to get blackberry service at my site, but surfing the internet is extremely slow and certain applications do not work well on the 2G speed. That being said there are volunteers with little to no cell phone service at their site. These areas are usually very rural and no cell phone towers have been placed there.

I mentioned that most Basotho don’t have Internet phones. Part of the reason for this is that most Basotho have never used a computer before. Therefore they don’t really understand the concept of Internet. Trying to explain email to someone who has never used the internet is very, very hard. Most Basotho don’t own their own computer but you can find Internet cafes in town and that’s where most Basotho use computers. Many Basotho who live in town have more advanced phones that allow them to access Internet.
This doesn’t mean that it is impossible to access Internet through a computer at my site. The cell phone companies cell modems that allow you to access Internet from your computer. But, as I said, there is really no concept of cell phone contracts here which means that you pay for the Internet per a MB of data. This can get very expensive. To save money most volunteers change the settings of their Internet browsers to no longer show pictures (it also helps the pages load considerably faster). Furthermore since this service is based on the cell phone coverage, mediocre cell phone signal means mediocre Internet speed. So using the Internet on my computer is a bit of a pain at my site. Simple tasks can take a few hours simply because the pages take so long to load.

So going back to my first point, this blog. Updating this blog is not easy from my site since the 2G connection often keep this interface from loading completely. Not to mention that sites like blogger are constantly updating their sites to make them more interactive and easier to use. Unfortunately for me this means that it is harder for me to access this site without a proper internet signal. It also means uploading pictures takes not only a lot of money but an extremely long time. Therefore it is easier for me to update my blog in town. But I am only able to come to town on weekends and depending on what I want to get done that day I either stop by an Internet café or I don’t.

But I really shouldn’t be complaining. I mean, I have a blackberry in Lesotho.