Cell Phone Nation: How Mobile Phones Have Revolutionized Business, Politics and Ordinary Life in India Read Free

a mobile phone
SMS
short message service
ST
Scheduled Tribes
TDMA
time division multiple access
TDSAT
Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal
TRAI
Telecom Regularly Authority of India
UIAI
Unique Identification Authority of India; also known as Aadhaar
UAPA
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act
UASL
universal access service licence
UP
Uttar Pradesh
USO
universal service obligation
VAS
value added services
VSNL
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd—overseas telecom company, acquired from the government by Tata in 2008
Wifi
radio frequency standards for short-distance data transfer
WLL
wireless in local loop

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    In the Preface, we acknowledged debts to institutionsand to the very special family people who put up with us on a limited-warranty, no-refund, no-return basis.
    Here, we try to thank those who helped us in a great many different and special ways. Some are longtime victims of our writing, consulted regularly for their willingness both to encourage and to warn. Into this category fall Alex Broom, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Nalin Mehta, Kama Maclean, Talis Polis, Philip Taylor and Ira Raja.
    Others, like Kishor Dabke, have given us very special help—Kishor, in trying to improve our understanding of Radio Frequency technology and what it means for mobile telephony. He bears no responsibility, however, for errors that remain: they are our fault. Charles Thomson became for us a set of ever-inquisitive ears and eyes roaming north India in the course of his work with EKO and providing us with leads about mobile-phone developments. David Brewster, as a lawyer once involved in telecom contracting, read parts of the manuscript. Philip Lutgendorf read, listened, suggested and sent us photographs. Sonia Sharma and her colleagues at MyMobile have never turned us away when we have come calling on them for advice and connections. V. Thiruppugazh is someone from whose guidance we have frequently profited.
    On visits to Lucknow and Allahabad, we benefited from the generosity of time and hospitality of M. Aslam (Allahabad University), Vivek Kumar (JNU), Badri Narayan (Pant Institute) and the journalist Sharat Pradhan.
    Friends tolerated a diet of telephone tittle-tattle andwere still willing to abet our enthusiasm by putting us in touch with their connections able to help us with our inquiries. Nir Avieli, Frank Conlon, Eva Fisch, Maxine Loynd, Barbara Nelson, Amitendu Palit, Peter Mayer, Ronit Ricci, Jesse Rumsey-Merlan, Ronojoy Sen, Ornit-Shani, Pratima Singh, David Shulman, Kate Sullivan, Matt Wade, Thomas Weber and Tamir Yahav all fall into the category of patient listeners and generous helpers.
    Helen Parsons in Canberra helped us shape the manuscript by bringing to bear on it the attentions of a skilful editor. Lee Li Kheng, a delightful cartographer at the National University of Singapore, drew the maps. We were remarkably lucky to encounter two editorial executives who shared our enthusiasm for this project. Michael Dwyer at C. Hurst in London, with whom Jeffrey had worked before, gave the project an adrenalin charge with his quick and keen response to our first approach. And Doron’s lucky meeting with Sharmila Sen of Harvard University Press connected us with another inspiring energiser.
    Scholars like Amita Baviskar, Greg Bailey, Sara Dickey, Rachel Dwyer, Michael H. Fisher, Peter Friedlander, Hugo Gorringe, Charu Gupta, Dennis McGilvray, S. Narayan, Sudha Pai, Anand Pandian, Arvind Rajagopal, Ursula Rao and Clarinda Still were similarly willing to overlook—and encourage—our phone fetish. They read things, offered things, made suggestions and put us onto new sources.
    We benefited greatly from getting to know the participants at a workshop on cell phones that we ran at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) in Singapore in February 2011, sponsored by ISAS, the Australian Research Council and the Ford Foundation. Those participants were Ang Peng Hwa, Shubranshu Choudhary, Subhashish Gupta, Sunil Mani, Janan