Yesterday evening I went to the Mobile Monday event here in Kampala, these events are not surprisingly similar in every city I’ve seen. The topic was different as the problems here are different and in some ways very basic. I am so used to the simplicity in the US of unlimited. Unlimited internet, unlimited SMS, unlimited phone calls or at least nearly so. I buy a plan and don’t worry about usage (in general that is, I’ve definitely gone over and paid the price but its rare). Its to the point where I can’t even tell you how much I use, I don’t keep track. But here, you pay as you go. You prepay for your minutes or kb and when you eat that up you buy some more. Its actually kind of stressful. Especially when you have to worry about how much will this call or download cost me? And, sorry mom, but I’m actually watching the clock while I’m talking to you to make sure I don’t go over the amount of minutes that I have bought on my international plan, (which I buy in 45 minute increments). No worries, skype will save me from these worries, oh wait, actually I have a limit there of kb up and down so maybe only video on occasion, and if I run out no more for me until the beginning of the next month. Not to mention bandwidth. When was the last time you didn’t view something or comment or blog because “it just eats up bandwidth” or would use up your allotment?
Just think of the market opportunities that are being missed (hello Rhapsody or Pandora). And I think if companies started to realize the money to be made in making the power ping and pipe a given this problem would start to dissolve. Someone needs to break the ground on that and I’m curiously looking around for that company (Smile is an interesting one for example with its new 4G LTE, I’m watching to see if they are going to change the market or merely find their place to make money in it).
Constraints do cause a lot of creativity and if you want to talk of how to bring the most value for the least cost, write a software application to solve a problem here in Uganda and you will quickly learn what is of value. It will have to be mobile to be pervasive and it can’t be taxing on your service or no one will use it. You’ll quickly spot waste and want to eliminate it or you won’t survive. I hope new organizations can pop up to remove some of these constraints and I hope that the mindset of value and efficiency the constraints create persist.
