Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

The Great Indian Phone Book : How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes Business, Politics, and Daily Life / Assa Doron.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (351 p.) : 16 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674074248
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 384.5 23
LOC classification:
  • HE9715
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- GLOSSARY -- ABBREVIATIONS -- LIST OF MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- RADIO FREQUENCY AND MOBILE PHONES -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 CONTROLLING COMMUNICATION -- 2 CELLING INDIA -- 3 MISSIONARIES OF THE MOBILE -- 4 MECHANICS OF THE MOBILE -- 5 FOR BUSINESS -- 6 FOR POLITICS -- 7 FOR WOMEN AND HOUSEHOLDS -- 8 FOR ‘WRONGDOING’ -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- PREFACE
Summary: In 2001, India had 4 million cell phone subscribers. Ten years later, that number had exploded to more than 750 million. Over just a decade, the mobile phone was transformed from a rare and unwieldy instrument to a palm-sized, affordable staple, taken for granted by poor fishermen in Kerala and affluent entrepreneurs in Mumbai alike. The Great Indian Phone Book investigates the social revolution ignited by what may be the most significant communications device in history, one which has disrupted more people and relationships than the printing press, wristwatch, automobile, or railways, though it has qualities of all four. In this fast-paced study, Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey explore the whole ecosystem of the cheap mobile phone. Blending journalistic immediacy with years of field-research experience in India, they portray the capitalists and bureaucrats who control the cellular infrastructure and wrestle over bandwidth rights, the marketers and technicians who bring mobile phones to the masses, and the often poor, village-bound users who adapt these addictive and sometimes troublesome devices to their daily lives. Examining the challenges cell phones pose to a hierarchy-bound country, the authors argue that in India, where caste and gender restrictions have defined power for generations, the disruptive potential of mobile phones is even greater than elsewhere. The Great Indian Phone Book is a rigorously researched, multidimensional tale of what can happen when a powerful and readily available technology is placed in the hands of a large, still predominantly poor population.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674074248

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- GLOSSARY -- ABBREVIATIONS -- LIST OF MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- RADIO FREQUENCY AND MOBILE PHONES -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 CONTROLLING COMMUNICATION -- 2 CELLING INDIA -- 3 MISSIONARIES OF THE MOBILE -- 4 MECHANICS OF THE MOBILE -- 5 FOR BUSINESS -- 6 FOR POLITICS -- 7 FOR WOMEN AND HOUSEHOLDS -- 8 FOR ‘WRONGDOING’ -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- PREFACE

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In 2001, India had 4 million cell phone subscribers. Ten years later, that number had exploded to more than 750 million. Over just a decade, the mobile phone was transformed from a rare and unwieldy instrument to a palm-sized, affordable staple, taken for granted by poor fishermen in Kerala and affluent entrepreneurs in Mumbai alike. The Great Indian Phone Book investigates the social revolution ignited by what may be the most significant communications device in history, one which has disrupted more people and relationships than the printing press, wristwatch, automobile, or railways, though it has qualities of all four. In this fast-paced study, Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey explore the whole ecosystem of the cheap mobile phone. Blending journalistic immediacy with years of field-research experience in India, they portray the capitalists and bureaucrats who control the cellular infrastructure and wrestle over bandwidth rights, the marketers and technicians who bring mobile phones to the masses, and the often poor, village-bound users who adapt these addictive and sometimes troublesome devices to their daily lives. Examining the challenges cell phones pose to a hierarchy-bound country, the authors argue that in India, where caste and gender restrictions have defined power for generations, the disruptive potential of mobile phones is even greater than elsewhere. The Great Indian Phone Book is a rigorously researched, multidimensional tale of what can happen when a powerful and readily available technology is placed in the hands of a large, still predominantly poor population.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)