The cost of illiteracy?

Interesting statistics about mobile phone usage:

In the UK, the number of outgoing voice calls made to the number of text messages is 0.6:1; in South Africa as a whole the the ratio is 3:1 for pre-pay phones; and in rural communities the average ratio is 13:1. Text messages are cheaper than phone calls, so this data, looked at from a western perspective, seems surprising. However, when considered in the context of a community where a significant number of people are illiterate it is more understandable.

from a talk given by Arun Sarin, Vodafone Group Chief Executive, last February.

Enjoyed this post? Why not sign up to receive Status-Q in your inbox?

1 Comment

Illiteracy doesn’t seem to slow down the youth of today on MySpace. At least they seem to understand each other’s written output.

Got Something To Say:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To create code blocks or other preformatted text, indent by four spaces:

    This will be displayed in a monospaced font. The first four 
    spaces will be stripped off, but all other whitespace
    will be preserved.
    
    Markdown is turned off in code blocks:
     [This is not a link](http://example.com)

To create not a block, but an inline code span, use backticks:

Here is some inline `code`.

For more help see http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

*

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser