Rural India Calling
Shilpa Sharma · 2009
This paper talks about an interesting and intriguing user group - of mobile phone users in rural India - never before have their opinions been so valuable and experiences, so important. Rural India as a market and mobile phones as a technology is a potent combination. Mobile phone companies and telecom operators are going all out to understand this fast emerging market, in order to monetize this growth. The findings presented in this paper are based on extensive fieldwork done across villages in India with the objective to understand the attitudes and perceptions of rural Indians around mobile phones. This paper delves into their lives and offers insights which aid in attaining the larger goal of design for all by exploring the services and technology that would benefit the rural Indian mobile phone user. With rural India’s accelerated adoption of the mobile phone technology, it becomes imperative that we understand them, their lives and needs better. They have proven to be very open and accepting of the mobile telephony wave. So, now the question is - Rural India is ready, are we ready for them?