All barriers to owning a cell phone can be overcome:
- Cost: a thrifty Ugandan can likely find a brand-new phone for UGX40,000 (below USD$25). Most will opt for more expensive phones, which cost twice that or more. That's nowhere near the cost of a television: it's more akin to the cost of two inter-city bus fares. Unless you're very poor, you can save up enough for a cell phone. (And I'll cover that little
unless
in another blog post.) - Phone numbers: a phone number (that is, a SIM card), which lasts forever, costs the equivalent of USD$1.
- Airtime: airtime must be prepaid, at a price of approximately USD$0.15/min (depending on the carrier you're calling from). Receiving calls is free. The airtime can be bought anywhere: I'd guess anywhere in Kampala the size of a New York city block is home to 30-50 airtime vendors. There are airtime vendors in slums, villages, and even some IDP camps.
- Reception: It's everywhere. On my Canadian cell phone I lose reception on the highway between Montreal and Toronto; in Uganda, Buhoma (right next to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest) is the first village I've found where I lost reception. And even in Buhoma, there was a certain patch of ground which was connected. Heck, they have reception in the IDP camps.
- Advertisement: The cell phone companies practically hold a monopoly on billboards (the notable exception being USAID's pro-abstinance billboards, my opinion of which I'll save for another post). Beyond billboards, a fifth of all buildings throughout Uganda are painted in bright, primary colours, depending on which company got to them first:
- Yellow: MTN: Everywhere You Go
- Blue: UTL (Uganda Telecom): It's All About U
- Red: Celtel: Making Life Better
I was waiting to snap a couple of pictures before I made this post, and I managed to find the perfect illustrations this weekend. Here they are:
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The one spot in Buhoma with cell phone reception: you'll always find a couple of people there, which is why there is no grass under their feet.
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Rolling hills in southwestern Uganda. Notice the red-and-white cell tower in the centre.
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Buildings painted by all three phone companies in Buwama (a village about a half-hour away from Kampala).
Fun Fact: According to the GSM Association, there are over three million mobile phone subscribers in Uganda; the phone penetration rate is 9%. Over 100,000 Ugandans are directly employed in the cell phone business. That's one job for every 30 cell phones.