Mobile Intimacy

This paper is based on ongoing research into the use of Japanese cute (kawaii) character customisation of mobile phones in the Asia-Pacific region. Far from illustrating a form of homogeneous Japanisation in the region, consumers are using kawaii customisation in diverse ways to articulate practices of interiority and exteriority, cultural capital and habitus. The dominance of cute character culture (‘cuteness’ or kawairashisa) as the mode for customising/personalising technologies such as mobile phones is very particular to this region. So what does this form of ‘humanising’ the dehumanised technological spaces say about local nuances and tendencies? How is kawairashisa being transformed through its appropriation outside mobile phones (in the form of hanging doll-like forms) and inside the telephonic and net spaces via ‘email pets’, as the region moves into 3G (third generation) mobile net telephony? And why has there been so little work into analysing cultural adaptations of kawairashisa outside Japan despite its apparent ubiquity? In his seminal work on Japanese global cultural production, Koichi Iwabuchi evokes the notion of Japaneseness as being ‘odourless’ (2002). This paper revises the notion of ‘odourlessness’ Japanese global products in relation to the use of kawairashisa adornments inside and outside mobile net telephonic spaces. By sketching some of the ways in which the kawaii has been theorised and the current research into mobile telephony, this paper seeks to outline a framework for understanding the ubiquitous phenomenon of mobile customisation that is still relatively under-theorised and under-researched.

Understanding the Design of Mobile Social Networking

2395: An ultrasound-focused second opinion cellular connection linking examiner and distanced expert using web-based information center and wireless mobile 3g connection

The mobile phone industry has experienced an explosive growth in recent years. Mobile phone subscriber numbers have passed the 1.6 billion mark at the end of 2004. The emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil contribute this growth. In China, the number of mobile subscribers has already surpassed the number of fixed landline phone subscribers. In Korea, the number of mobile phone Internet subscribers is 34.53 million people or 72% of the population in June 2004 (APEC, 2005). Mobile e-commerce (m-commerce) makes business mobility a reality. Mobile users can access the Internet at anytime and anywhere with ubiquitous, inexpensive computing infrastructure. Mobile wireless services are ranging from mobile phone networks to wireless local area networks. The service provided by mobile phone systems has achieved huge success. Mobile phone users originate from all walks of life and include almost all age groups—from teenagers to retired people. It creates a new method of personal communication without location constraints. As telecommunication technologies are converging at fast speed. We will study mobile phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) related to mobile and wireless telecommunication. Hence, m-commerce is defined as electronic commerce carried out in handheld devices such as mobile phone and PDA through mobile and wireless telecommunication networks.

Access to and use of mobile telephony in sub-Saharan Africa has increased dramatically over the past decade. Mobile telephony has brought new possibilities to the continent. Across urban–rural and rich–poor divides, mobile phones connect individuals to individuals, information, markets, and services. These effects can be particularly dramatic in rural Africa, where in many places mobile phones have represented the first modern telecommunications infrastructure of any kind. Mobile phones have greatly reduced communication costs, thereby allowing individuals and firms to send and to obtain information quickly and cheaply on a variety of economic, social, and political topics. An emerging body of research shows that the reduction in communication costs associated with mobile phones has tangible economic benefits, improving agricultural and labor market efficiency and producer and consumer welfare in specific circumstances and countries. This paper first examines the evolution of mobile phone coverage and adoption in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. We then explore the main channels through which mobile phones can effect economic outcomes and appraise current evidence of its potential to improve economic development. We conclude with directions for future research and outline the necessary conditions for mobile phones to promote broader economic development in Africa.

The mobile phone has been one of the most disruptive factors to come to India in modern times. This article aims to chalk out a framework for understanding the cell phone's all-encompassing social impact. The extent of the change is huge. In 1987, India had 2.3 million phone connections (0.3% of its population). By January 2010, that number had gone up to 688 million phone connections (about 60% of the population if phones had been evenly distributed). More than 90% of the phones by 2010 were mobile phones. Charting the vast universe of India's mobile telephony, this article identifies three categories of people: controllers, servants and users – those who control radio frequency spectrum; those who perform the host of tasks required to package and sell the spectrum; and those Indians, now numbering hundreds of millions, who use mobile phones every day. The theme is the profound transformation that mobile phones bring to individual lives, perhaps more fundamental in India than in other parts of the world. The mobile phone can be an equalizer: it has the potential to open to low-status people possibilities that they have never had before. The mushroom growth of the cell phone raises questions about effects on society, politics and economy. At the top of India's class pyramid, how does one understand the great political–economic contests generated by struggles to control the cell phone market? At the base of the pyramid, to what extent does the mass availability of cheap cell phones and services alter the lives of poor, low-status people? And what of those in between? Is the cell phone destined to change human activity as profoundly as the printing press? This exploratory article begins to identify key questions related to mobile phones and sketches how a holistic account of the device and its implications might be composed.

Developing mobile telecommunications to narrow digital divide in developing countries? Some lessons from China

BackgroundMobile phone use and exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from it have been associated with symptoms in some studies, but the studies have shortcomings and their findings are inconsistent. We conducted a prospective cohort study to assess the association between amount of mobile phone use at baseline and frequency of headache, tinnitus or hearing loss at 4-year follow-up.MethodsThe participants had mobile phone subscriptions with major mobile phone network operators in Sweden (n = 21 049) and Finland (n = 3120), gave consent for obtaining their mobile phone call data from operator records at baseline, and filled in both baseline and follow-up questionnaires on symptoms, potential confounders and further characteristics of their mobile phone use.ResultsThe participants with the highest decile of recorded call-time (average call-time >276 min per week) at baseline showed a weak, suggestive increased frequency of weekly headaches at 4-year follow-up (adjusted odds ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 0.95–1.34). There was no obvious gradient of weekly headache with increasing call-time (P trend 0.06). The association of headache with call-time was stronger for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network than older Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) technology, despite the latter involving higher exposure to RF-EMF. Tinnitus and hearing loss showed no association with call-time.ConclusionsPeople using mobile phones most extensively for making or receiving calls at baseline reported weekly headaches slightly more frequently at follow-up than other users, but this finding largely disappeared after adjustment for confounders and was not related to call-time in GSM with higher RF-EMF exposure. Tinnitus and hearing loss were not associated with amount of call-time.

Drawing upon qualitative research data of a study I carried out in Gaborone and Francistown, this article attempts to demonstrate that the mobile phone is ubiquitous and cultural technology which has become central to young people’s intimate relationships. In particular, the use of mobile phones in romantic relationships among urban youth in Botswana is evinced in two ways, both of which are clearly local and distinct. First, the mobile phone is useful to facilitate emotional intimacy through voice calls, text messages and social networking, thus serving as a substantial link between intimate partners. Second, through its cost value, the mobile phone is recognised as a perfect gift to express practical intimacy in romantic relationships. This study therefore suggests that, in the way it is used, the mobile phone influences youth to create or recreate mobile cultures, which are to some extent predicated on their traditional lifestyles.

This book examines how mobile telephony contributes to social change in rural India (West Bengal, Bankura district) on the basis of long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a village before and after the introduction of mobile phones. The book investigates how mobile telephones emerged as multidimensional objects that not only enable telephone conversations, but also facilitate status aspirations, internet access, and entertainment practices. It explores how this multifaceted use of mobile phones has influenced economic, political, and social relationships, including gender relationships, and how these new social constellations relate to culture and development. The book examines social institutions as culturally constructed spheres tied to translocal processes that, nevertheless, have local meanings. The author delves into social and cultural changes to examine agency and power relationships: Who benefits from mobile telephony and how? Can people use mobile phones to further their aims to change their lives, or does phone use merely amplify existing social patterns and power relationships? Can mobile telephony induce development? Using a holistic ethnographic approach, the book develops a framework to understand how new media mediates social processes within interrelated social spheres and local hierarchies. It delves into mobile phone use as a multidimensional process with diverse impacts by exploring how media-saturated forms of interaction relate to preexisting contexts.

A Era da Informação caracteriza-se pelo papel central que a comunicação e a conectividade, em sentido amplo, desempenham na vida social. Dentre as formas pelas quais os usuários podem se conectar a redes de voz ou dados, uma das que mais têm se destacado é a telefonia celular. Isso torna a determinação da quantidade de telefones celulares que estarão em operação no Brasil nos próximos anos uma discussão relevante para o planejamento estratégico das empresas do setor. Neste artigo, objetiva-se definir um modelo matemático adequado ao cálculo da quantidade de terminais celulares em operação no Brasil para os próximos anos, como função do comportamento das seguintes variáveis ao longo do tempo: PIB per capita, população, e crescimento percentual do PIB. Para tanto, desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa quantitativa, com base em dados secundários obtidos em levantamentos anteriores, e empregou-se a regressão linear e polinomial para correlacionar o PIB per capita com a densidade da telefonia celular. Observou-se uma alta correlação (97,5%) entre a densidade telefônica e o crescimento do PIB do Brasil entre 2004 e 2007. Essa correlação também é alta na Rússia, Índia e China. Além disso, constatou-se que o valor limitante da boa correlação entre o PIB per capita e a densidade de telefonia celular gira em torno de U$ 20.000,00, e o limite da penetração da telefonia celular é de aproximadamente 120%. Assim, levando em conta as várias taxas de crescimento econômico, estima-se que a penetração telefônica celular levará entre 5 e 11 anos para atingir seu teto no Brasil.Palavras-chave: Telefonia celular. Modelo de predição. Telecomunicações.

In the last two decades, transnational social fields have been transformed by advances in information and communication technologies (ICT). Many scholars have noted the empowering effects of these technological advances for migrants. Drawing on the concept of return preparedness, it follows that ICT use should also empower prospective returnees, enabling them to be better informed and prepared for return. However, multi‐sited ethnographic research with older North and West African men living in migrant worker hostels in France finds that ICT use – particularly mobile telephony –impedes return. In some instances, mobile phones serve to amplify the pressures on the men to provide financially for their stay‐at‐home relatives. In others, mobile phones reinforce attachments to France by facilitating networks of solidarity among hostel residents. Instead of returning definitively at retirement, many hostel residents choose a bi‐residence strategy, dividing their time between France and countries of origin.

In the context of an international research project on older people’s relations with and through mobile telephony, Italian participants spontaneously provided narrations on mobile phones that appeared to be structured around strong stereotypes. Respondents show a twofold representation of mobile phones either as a simple communication tool or as a ‘hi-tech’ device, which generates multifaceted stereotypes. More specifically, when the mobile phone is considered as a simple communication tool, age-based stereotypes address younger people’s bad manners, while gendered stereotypes depict women as ‘chatterboxes’ or ‘social groomers’. On the other hand, when the mobile phone is considered a ‘hi-tech’ device, age-based stereotypes underline younger people’s advanced user skills, while gendered stereotypes focus on women’s lack of competencies. Based on that, we provide a conceptual framework for analysing such stereotyped – and apparently conflicting – representations. Interestingly, while some issues also emerged in other countries, the masculine assumption that women are less-skilled mobile phone users appears as a peculiarity of Italian respondents.

The Economics of Mobile Telephone Regulation

Mobile phones are often used in the operating theatres, with possible health risks for patients. Phone surfaces can be contaminated with pathogens causing infections (infectious risk). In addition, mobile phones can interfere with attention by becoming a possible cause of error (risk of error). Finally, electromagnetic waves can interfere with equipment (risk of interference). This paper consists of two parts, the first dedicated to the review of the literature regarding the three risks associated with the use of mobile phones in the operating room. The second presents the results of a field observation carried out during surgery in 4 hospital facilities with the aim of describing the use of the mobile phone by health professionals. The literature review highlights that a. several resistant Methicillin bacteria and negative Grams survive on phone surfaces, but effective disinfection protocols are available; b. the presence of the mobile phone is a source of distraction during the performance of a task. However, mobile phone communication can improve care and reduce communication errors. Field observations have confirmed both the tendency to bring mobile phones into the operating room and the habit of using them (especially by anesthetists and nurses). Ninety per cent of interviewed personnel admitted to take with them mobile phones. The presence of the mobile phone exposes to risks that can be controlled through appropriate procedures. It is essential to regulate the entry of the mobile phone into the operating room and provide for treatment protocols, as well as to plan training activities on their correct use.