Editorial - Listening with a third ear
published: Monday | December 27, 2004

THE GROWTH of cellphone use among the Jamaican population has been nothing short of phenomenal, confirming our well known reputation of volubility. Even street people living on the sidewalk have been seen reclining on an elbow, a cellphone stuck to an ear.

It has been reported that if present trends continue, Jamaica may exceed America in the use of cellphones on a per capita basis. According to the International Telecommunication Union, 57 per cent of the U.S. population have wireless phones compared with 54 per cent in Jamaica, good news for the three main providers of the service who compete in the Jamaica market. The number of cellphones has increased from 13,000 in 1991 to well over a million at present. Digicel, the bold Irish pioneer, is reported to have a customer base of a million subscribers; Cable and Wireless, which was slow off the mark, 600,000 subscribers; and MiPhone, which recently reorganised, 85,000 customers. The market may now be approaching saturation point and growth in future years is not likely to be as dramatic as in the past. But the impact of the cellphone has been indelibly stamped on the Jamaican psyche and culture for better and for worse.

The availability of cellphones has been a godsend to persons in the rural areas who for years were unable to access regular landline service. But while cellphones have undoubtedly contributed to business productivity they have also provided the criminal element with a new tool for carrying out nefarious deeds. Crooks with cellphones alert their cronies about bank customers leaving with cash, thus facilitating hold-ups and carjackings.

That good and bad consequences flow from any new technological advance is well known as, for example, the invention of the automobile which revolutionised industry and travel but which became a dangerous tool in the hands of criminals and conquering armies. In the long course of history, the advantages of technology have always outweighed the disadvantages and this is how progress is measured.