Views
Mobile and Remote Technologies
From NGOPedia
| ICT Guide for Decision Makers |
|
Contents |
Introduction
This article is a brief introduction to mobile technology concepts. Of course we won't start from how to talk or SMS on the cell phone here… We will review infrastructure concepts for non-profit organisations which are (considering) providing services to their constituents, fund raising or working in the field with mobile technologies. Then on another article, Mobile Applications for NGOs we will look at the types of applications.
As majority of African population living in rural areas and the wired communication infrastructure coverage is rather small and unreliable, the continent embraced the mobile technologies enthusiastically – with mobile telephone user numbers are overwhelmingly higher than any other communication means and still increasing. One research showed that the first item the young people buy with their first wage is a cell-phone.
Mobile phone networks (maintained by many companies in each of the countries) are actually networks of large antennas that distribute signals across areas. The mobile phones communicate with these “base stations” via some wireless method to attach this network. This way people can talk, or transmit data over this network by using their mobile devices. In order to have a reliable communication one has to be 8 to 13 km close to a base station (tower antenna). Of course when it comes to wireless communications the distance varies with the geographical structure, such as mountains, big buildings, and etc.
Technology Concepts
Without getting too technical about how this communication works, as we mentioned in networking section of this series, electronic network communications rely on protocols and standards so devices understand each other. These are like our languages. This is also valid for mobile communications. You may have heard of terms such as GSM, 3G, SMS… these are all standards or protocols that the mobile infrastructure uses.
Before we start be warned that there are many acronyms. The engineers in electronic communications field love acronyms.
Let’s have a brief look at the important ones:
GSM
This is the most popular standard in mobile telephony in the world (80%). Almost all basic (and sophisticated) mobile phones and networks in Africa support it. Although GSM frequencies vary with regions, and you would need phones that support those frequencies, in Africa fortunately it is standard (to my knowledge). But if you are to travel various parts of the world, you would need to look for phones that cover many frequencies (4 of them).
With GSM you can make voice calls. Although you can make data communications, it is rather slow and you are charged by the duration (i.e. the time you keep the data connection on) – which is bad on a slow connection. GSM 2G doesn’t allow simultaneous data and voice communication (others do).
GSM is dubbed as 2G (second generation) standard.
GPRS (2.5G)
This differs from GSM (2G) by how it handles data. As 2G handles data for its connection duration, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) counts as packets rather than duration (and it has better speed- which is moderate). This is good since you are charged only for the amount of data transmitted (like x amount of money per Megabyte). GSM+GPRS standards dubbed as 2.5G (as in transition to 3G). One other advantage over 2G is GPRS uses bandwidth better thus less congestion. So with GPRS comes: always on internet access, multimedia messaging service (MMS – where you can send photos as message), smart device applications, and so on.
EDGE
This is also known as Enhanced GPRS. It is faster. It allows video communications as well.
3G
3G Refers to third generation of mobile phone technology. It has increased mobile data communication speed (today fastest in Africa). Besides being speedier, it allows mobile TV as well. As you know there are non-telephone 3G devices that connect your computer to internet which takes advantage of this speedy communication.
4G
(Coming soon – how soon to Africa?) It promises ultra-broadband internet access – which means really fast communication. Also secure data connection will be possible. One other fancy use will be HDTV streaming video – i.e. High Definition TV on your cell phone.
So these are the important mobile communication standards for Africa (there are others, but you don’t need to know them). One thing you must know that – even if you have the most sophisticated 3G telephone, if you are in a poor reception area, or the base station doesn’t support it, your communication drops to the next lower standard – and this goes on until your telephone and the base station agree on a reliable communication. So all of a sudden you see GPRS (or EDGE if you are lucky) on your telephone… and sloooow communication.
Now let’s have a look at some services that you may use:
SMS
Well, you don’t need to be told what it is, but for the sake of this article I will add a few words. SMS stands for Short Messaging Services. You can send text messages to another cell phone number. Hence the name the text is limited to 160 characters (letters, numbers, spaces, punctuation marks…) It is the most popular service all around the world. There are 2.6 billion active SMS users! Even simple phones support it. This 160 character limit and funny typing exercise made people develop a new SMS “lingo” which people like me find very annoying:Gr8! (If you are interested, here’s an SMS Speak translator.
One other disadvantage of SMS is that it doesn’t keep its session (or context). This means that each message is on its own. So you wouldn’t know if a particular message comes to you as a reply to a previous one or not. For example if you have sent two different SMS messages to someone and he answers “YES” you wouldn’t know to which one he responded. This makes SMS based complex data applications pretty challenging. Also especially on older infrastructures SMS can be insecure (i.e. someone can create messages as if it comes from someone else.
Again related to that, SMS messages delivered whenever the network can. So it is not instant (as voice or chat sessions). In a congested network it can be delayed significantly. So if you need a meaningful chat with someone either call them or if you both have internet capable phones, use Mobile Instant Messaging (many free services on the internet).
MMS
Multimedia Messaging Service. It extends SMS to send photographs from phones with cameras – and video or ring tones. There are (were) some challenges though. Media compatibility between networks is one of them. Bulk messaging via MMS is rather hard (unlike SMS). And some of the challenges are due to setting up your cellphone correctly. It is due to this complexity that some lucky users of “smarter phones” prefer to send photos as email attachments rather than MMS.
USSD
Unstructured Supplementary Services Data. We talked about some challenges of SMS in developing applications on (not keeping session or context, response delays) USSD can be an alternative. Response time is quicker and it keeps session. This is the service you use when you connect to the phone company with some code to add minutes or query your time left and such. You can even have menu selection applications (such as key 1 for Information, 2 for donations…) . Many financial transactions via cell phone use this service.
STK
SIM application Toolkit. Similar to USSD but based on some identity/programs on the SIM card. They claim to be more secure (Kenya M-pesa service uses this.) It is much costlier to manage though.
Short Code
It is a service by cell phone networks that provides an easy to remember short number to send a message to a service. For example: Text yes to 12345 to donate airtime… or yes@12345. It requires an agreement with the telephone company to set it up. Possible applications can be voting, survey or fundraising. Of course if you can also use regular numbers for these applications and it would be easier and cheaper but the long numbers can be challenging for the audience.
Common Mobile Devices
A few words about them for completeness... The figure below actually summarizes it well. As you can see there is a trend for integration, i.e. putting all the functions such as telephony, personal digital assistant, GPS, camera into one device. Which makes it easier to carry in one device (or complex if you just want to use a phone). But as the devices get sophisticated the applications can be so with more possibilities.
Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.