Connecting Isolated Communities
Niall Keleher, Mary Claire Barela, Joshua Evan Blumenstock, Cedric Angelo M. Festin, Matthew Podolsky, Erin Troland, Arman Rezaee, Kurtis Heimerl · 2020
What determines the success of community cellular networks? We leverage unique circumstances where all households in seven localities were interviewed before the launch of cellular networks. We observed substantial differences in network adoption across communities. Four communities displayed high and regular usage, while usage dissipated shortly after the network launch in three sites. Sixty-five percent of households made or received at least one call or text message. We find that a one standard deviation increase in household wealth is correlated with a three percentage point increase in network adoption and 43 additional cellular network transactions. Agricultural households were ten percentage points more likely to adopt the network than other households and female-headed households were five percentage points more likely to use the network at least once.