Odd stories about cellular phones in Africa

By Aloyce Menda of JUSTA-AFRICA


The first digitalized mobile phone operator in Tanzania, Tritel was closed for bankrupt after less than three years of operation. Tritel was the second mobile phone company to be registered in Tanzania and its failure in business astonished many people who believe that mobile phone companies in Africa are reaping wealth. When it started operations in 1996, Tritel made its vision and mission apparent to public: It was “a company of the elite serving the affluent elite”

It was sparkling and sincere proclamation but a blunder as far as long-term business strategies are concerned. So Tritel operations were concentrated in Dar es Salaam, the largest commercial city and the de-facto capital of Tanzania with a population of three million.

It is accurate that in 1990s cellular phones were deemed as expensive technology of the elite but was a lacking necessitates that common people envied as well. By then, Mobitel, the first mobile phone operator in Tanzania was still utilizing the cumbersome analogy technology, lacking the pre-paid vouchers cards.

Vodacom, the third and now the largest mobile phone company in Tanzania started its services in late 1990s. Soon it realized the available business vacuum and hence capitalized on the Tritel mistakes. The first Vodacom advertisements depicted a Maasai herdsman talking through a cellular phone while watching his herd of cattle amid the vast jungle of Maasai land. Maasai is a famous indigenous tribe of east Africa adored for cultural preservation, traditional knowledge and resistance against foreign manipulation as well as affluent technologies. Vodacom imported the less costly and smaller Siemens cellular sets to go parallel with its services.

Clients could get a connected Siemens cellular for Tanzanian shillings 70,000 (approx. US$ 70), from Vodacom vendors scattered in Dar es Salaam. Before a connected cellular could cost as much as Tsh. 150,000 (approx. US$ 150) or much more, from dealers linked to Mobitel and Tritel, the predecessors in mobile phone technology in Tanzania. Vodacom also simplified its services and spread them countrywide contrary to its competitors. The company is today accredited for changing the format of mobile phone services to be a common man friendly in Tanzania.

Currently, cellular phones also known as wireless phones are no doubt, the most famous tool of all the modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa. Only broadcasting FM radios, matches mobile phone operations in popularity amongst the ICT services. In contrast to the broadcast technologies that were the mark of modernism (radio and television) the digital mobile phone technology allows anyone who is connected to send a signal, and to choose which signal to receive. The message is free from the definition of the medium, and the consequences are profound.

Currently, Africa is the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market. Use of mobile phones has been increasing at an annual rate of 65%, more than twice the global average. Mobile phone companies are making a fortune in Africa. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) says more Africans have begun using phones since 2000 than in the whole of the previous century. Today there are more people using mobile phones across the continent than traditional, fixed lines. However, like fixed lines concentrations, most of cellular phones are used in urban areas by minority elite. The poor African majority still cannot afford cellular phones despite their high desire for that.

The media and minority elite in control of information flows has disseminated many stories and advertisements on the benefits of mobile phones as a modern ICT but still there are amazing facts under the cover.

About two years ago, Sarah, a jealous and dishonest nurse employed in a maternity hospital broke her marriage due to mobile phones. Her divorced husband Adam is a Dar es Salaam based trader who travel outside the city regularly. For over a year Adam had rejected a request to buy a cellular phone for her wife though he possessed one.

Sarah was envious, tired and frustrated by her husband’s negative response. She eventually took a small loan from her employer and bought two cellular sets, one to walk with and another to stay home. Her actual aim was to have a firm control of the family especially her husband she persistently accused of having sexual affairs outside their marriage.

A month after buying the phones, Sarah was in contact with so many people some of whom Adam could not trust, but was hesitant to query. He once traveled outside the city and called Sarah but could not get her because Sarah’s cellular was switched off. He then called home and a housemaid told him that Sarah was out for hospital night duty. He then called the hospital through the landline. The hospital receptionist told him that according to the accessible duty roster “Mrs. Sarah Adam is out of duty!”

Adam was more frustrated when he called home in the following morning to be informed that her wife was still in a night duty! He bought a return ticket immediately for a journey back to Dar es Salaam from Tanga. After seven-hour road journey he was back home and found Sarah asleep late in the evening. Adam pretended to be filling ill and hence the reason for his earlier return. Sarah said she was scheduled for a night duty that night but could ask her supervisor to substitute her with another nurse so that she could stay home to care for her ailing husband.

Adam told Sarah that he was not that much sick to disrupt her working schedule. He thanked and pleaded to Sarah to proceed for a night duty. Sarah insisted to call her supervisor and stay home to care for husband. While Sarah was in the kitchen, Adam called the hospital reception to ask for Sarah. “I am sorry according to available duty roster Mrs. Sarah Adam is not supposed to be on night duty!” a receptionist replied. Adam was distressed and asked Sarah for the telephone numbers of her immediate supervisors. She refused to give and a serious squabble erupted between them. The following morning Adam was in the hospital administrator’s office requesting to see the current duty roster for nurses. The administrator refused to discharge it.

He despaired and unhappy marriage started. One month later, Adam tricked Sarah. “I have a one week trade mission outside the city, I will leave to Arusha tomorrow,” he told her showing a bus ticket. The following morning he packed his bag and Sarah escorted him to the station to ensure he embark in upcountry bus.

But Adam dropped from the bus in the next station and returned to the city by taxi. He logged in a guesthouse far from his home. Late in the evening he left the logging to investigate on Sarah. He could secretly trace Sarah as she was leaving home for a night duty with a handbag. Amazingly Sarah went to meet a man in a guesthouse close to the one Adam was logging. After 30 minutes he called Sarah and but her cellular was switched off!

Adam hired paparazzi to take Sarah’s photo as she was leaving the guesthouse towards a pub, dressed in another attire. He then followed her secretly and took cover in adjacent street apartment corridor. A few minutes after arriving in a pub, Sarah called Adam. “Hello darling, the bus has just arrived in the fourth station. It is cold here,” Adam told Sarah.
“I am just from the surgical theatre to find a missing call in my cellular,” she replied and after that Adam was disconnected.

Sarah made another call immediately. This time it was to a man she left in the guesthouse. She ordered a waiter to bring her a drink and after 10 minutes, the man arrived in a car to joined Sarah for a night drinking spree. Apparently, the man was the hospital administrator who refused Adam to see the nurses’ duty roster. About 30 minutes later Adam arrived in the same pub wi

Posted By: ALOYCE MENDA