Mobile phones as a tool in the household production process. Evidence from Puno, Peru

Abstract

In less developed countries, mobile phones are the chosen means to access telecommunication services, particularly among the poor. In rural areas, usually lacking fixed telephony and public phones, there was a delay in mobile phone expansion and, consequently, adoption. Moreover, poverty is concentrated in rural areas, so as to render them unattractive for commercial service expansion. In spite of these difficulties, mobile phones are widely used in rural areas, although subscription to prepaid phones lags behind and post paid service is almost non existent. The discrepancy between use and subscription is explained by the widespread offering of mobile calls by street vendors, in fact using them as the regular public phone. Using evidence gathered in the area of influence of two rural markets in Puno, Peru, where livestock husbandry is more important than agricultural activities, this paper will identify how mobile phones are used by rural producers, trying to explain the impact their use has had in farm profits. Factors such as familiarity with ICTs, experience, length of mobile phone use, household commercial orientation, importance of agriculture vs livestock husbandry, family size and composition, among others, will be discussed and evaluated econometrically. In so doing, we will examine the role the mobile phone currently plays.