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| Mobile Warriors: Costa Rican Youth, Mobile Phones and Social Change |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
One laptop per child is a noble goal worth fighting for. However, a more practical solution for bridging the digital divide might be adopting the current version of the internet to work in sync with mobile browsers, as well as new networked applications which provide services such as health care and banking to remote populations. It also makes sense to lower price baskets for both mobile and internet services: there is a great gap between countries which high mobile penetration rates and low price baskets, and countries with low mobile penetration rates and high price baskets (Barrantes et. all, 2007).
In Central American countries where the government has recognized the power of ICTs and development, mobile phones and the internet are much more accessible. For example, Costa Rica’s Institute of Electricity (ICE) is a national telecommunications firm which provides subsidized access to mobile services, with some of the most affordable rates in Central America for electricity, mobile phones, internet, and other telecommunications services.
Costa Rica currently has one of the highest rates of media access in Central America, with a Mobile Price Basket $6.30 below the average in Central America. This translates to a Mobile Subscriber Rate second only to Panama’s: 227 out of 1000 people, 28 points above the national average for Central America. Costa Rica has the lowest mobile rates in all of Central America at $4.20 (Statistics gathered from Mobileactive.org).
In Costa Rica access to telecommunications services is seen as a patriotic right. Yet this right is under threat by the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The Central American Free Trade Agreement is known in Spanish as TLC, and serves as a regional free trade agreement with the United States. According to one participant in a debate about a Costa Rican YouTube video on TLC and telecommunications:
Seamos claros, con todo y los defectos del ICE, uno encuentra a un chofer de bus, niños en las escuelas públicas y empleadas domésticas con celular. ¿Dónde en centroamérica ve algo similar? Mejoremos al ICE. No al TLC.
(Let’s be clear, with all the deficits from ICE, anyone can find bus drivers, kids in public school, and domestic employees with cell phones. Where else in Central America can you see something similar? We’re better with ICE. No to CAFTA.)
TLC for Costa Rica means massive government economic reforms: the privatization of ICE, education, health care, and other social services. With TLC, national environmental legislation could be in danger. Costa Rica is about one third national parkland, which is part of its attraction as an internationally recognized eco-tourism destination. When TLC was announced by the Arias government, protests and strikes erupted across the country. Protest numbers were downsized by the mainstream media, but the larger blogger community picked up on this.
Ultimately, the country put TLC to a national referendum on October 7th, 2007, which brought out 73.6% of the electorate. TLC was passed with 51.6% approval rating, but that did not stop the protests! What the mainstream media did not pick up on, citizen media brought to life. With the passing of the CAFTA/ TLC agreement, Costa Rica’s nationalized telecommunications industry will face big changes in the upcoming years. These will affect Costa Rica’s access to citizen media.
It is clear that, through both mobile phones and the internet, Costa Ricans have expressed their dissent as citizens using access to citizen media tools provided cheaply through ICE. According to a case study done by mobileactive.org, “in the following years, the cellular phone has the power to become the most chosen form of electronic media by activists in order to create public mobilizations, and to become a medium for social reclamation.” There is no doubt that Costa Ricans have taken advantage of their increased access to citizen media to protest the slashing of their rights. On blogs, in SMS messages and on online videos, Costa Rican No-TLC activists expressed calls-to-action both before and after the national referendum.
One of the most popular and affordable functions of the cellular phone is text messaging (SMS). Cheaper than regular calls and much faster than using the Internet, 500 million text messages are exchanged around the world per year. Text messages can be used to vote on reality TV shows, report crimes, or get information quickly e.g. your horoscope or what’s playing at the local cinema.
In Costa Rica national media establishments like La Nación have used text messaging to deliver the news straight to their customers. They also provide free text messaging services to Costa Ricans through their website. Similarly, Costa Rican credit franchise El Gallo más Gallo uses SMS messages to deliver messages to their customers. Even as mobile phone usage rates rise, there is no doubt that services will increase over the next decade.
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circulating a film on AIDS thru mobile nielu patekar | Mar 30th, 2009
is it possible? if yes, how?
whom to contact?
hello,
i am a woman writer-director-actress-cinematographer from mumbai, india.
have you seen my following films?
a film on AIDS, ‘it’s just unjust’ duration 3 min. access to the link,
http://tigurl.org/uk0xo4
a film on baba amte , dur 7 min.s access the following link to view it in two parts.
http://tigurl.org/spytmi
I would like to share these with you, your family, friends , groups & your communities by including them in your video section, you can put the respective url s on your site so that visitors to your page can view it.
pl. also let me know your comment on viewing my films.
Regards,
neelkantee
Thank You! Timothy G. Branfalt Sr. | May 3rd, 2009
My younger brother died of aids at the age of 32. You are an incredibly determined mind that is of what this world needs more of. I live in Costa Rica, and if you ever seem to dwell on over, Me Casa es Su Casa!
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