As I have only recently joined this group, I thought I would introduce myself.
I spent the last 3 years lecturing at a University in Papua New Guinea, in communication studies and journalism. I am now commencing my PhD at Queensland University of Technology. My research will explore the social impact of mobile phones in Papua New Guinea. Mobiles are only just coming in to Papua New Guinea now. Prior to the middle of last year, the government telecommunication provider, Telikom PNG, held a monopoly, but very few people had mobiles as the networks were so limited, with only poor quality reception, even in urban areas. But then the govt's competition commission said that the market should be opened up to competition, and it granted licences to two overseas companies. Since the middle of last year, mobile phone uptake has increased at an astonishing rate there. About 10% of the population got a mobile between July 2007 and March 2008. The reason I got interested in the topic is because of a conversation I had with a Papua New Guinean late last year. She was telling me about her village, which is a fairly typical village, in that it has no improved water supply, no electricity and no landline telephones. And then she told me that they have mobile phone reception there now! I was so struck by this, and decided that I wanted to do my PhD research about this to find out the impact of this big change in people’s lives. As I am quite new to the area of mobile phone research, I would welcome any discussion about this research topic, or any reading suggestions. Thank you, Amanda Watson PhD candidate Queensland University of Technology [EMAIL PROTECTED] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
