James Jeffrey, Versteeg Mila
Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, Tilburg, 5000 LE The Netherlands.
Soc Indic Res. 2007 Oct;84(1):117-126. doi: 10.1007/s11205-006-9079-x. Epub 2007 Jan 4.
Mobile phones are a crucial mode of communication and welfare enhancement in poor countries, especially those lacking an infrastructure of fixed lines. In recent years much has been written about how mobile telephony in Africa is rapidly reducing the digital divide with developed countries. Yet, when one examines the evidence it is not at all clear what is really happening. In one country, Tanzania, for example, some observers point to the fact that 97% of the population lives under the mobile footprint, while others show that ownership is very limited. These extreme values prompted us to review the situation in Africa as a whole, in an effort to discover what is really going on.
在贫穷国家，尤其是那些缺乏固定电话基础设施的国家，手机是至关重要的通信方式和改善民生的手段。近年来，关于非洲移动电话如何迅速缩小与发达国家之间数字鸿沟的文章屡见不鲜。然而，当审视相关证据时，实际情况究竟如何却并不明晰。例如，在坦桑尼亚这个国家，一些观察家指出该国97%的人口处于移动电话信号覆盖范围内，而另一些人则表明手机拥有率非常有限。这些极端数据促使我们对整个非洲的情况进行审视，以努力弄清楚实际发生的情况。
