free government smartphones

free government smartphones

The Impact and Implications of Providing Free Government Smartphones

1. Introduction to Free Government Smartphones

Proponents of giving away phones argue that access to telecommunications is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. Especially during emergencies, being able to call for help or communicate regarding one’s status can be a matter of life and death. Furthermore, smartphones can provide an anchor to “opportunity structures” and suffice for getting job and other useful information, online banking, and staying in contact with important people. Teachers like it when kids have smartphones, as a way of keeping the kids engaged during study or driven-by-boredom car rides. With access to smartphones, underprivileged people may avoid worse outcomes from not being able to rapidly and accurately communicate a change in status or talk with emergency personnel, as long as there are shelters and services available for people who can communicate with the outside world. In short, free smartphones for the poor address concerns of both disparity and home equipment for enhanced education and social care.

One of the more controversial aspects of the tight link between government and IT is the common practice of giving away smartphones. As of early 2014, four out of five low-income individuals in the United States received free or discounted phones. In many countries, the local equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission has their own Lifeline programs for phone service for the underprivileged, and efforts to expand this to include broadband have seen success with regulators. Although the provision of free or discounted smartphones by a government may address perceived equity concerns, the policy has implications for economic efficiency, externalities, moral hazard, government’s accountability, and government constraint.

2. Benefits and Challenges of Providing Free Smartphones

Already, governments and companies across the world are providing different segments of the population, from the wealthy and elite to people on welfare, with free low-end (but increasingly more usable) and high-end smartphones in an attempt to further modernize them and improve their services. These initiatives highlight improved capabilities to reach populations that have historically been difficult to access due to technological and economic constraints. The possibilities from these actions are promised to generate many and diverse benefits, as well as expected and unexpected challenges. The demands for better services – and in fact different kinds of services – that this demographic revolution and potential smartphone oligarchy will require the normal set of pressures and expectations. Yet the initial focus and needs to accommodate these technologies seem to come from the public and social sector – especially in the form of better ways to provide safety nets in the form of food coupons and financial transfers.

Today’s smartphone is as much a computer as it is a phone, and as important in terms of connectivity as electricity, water, and sewage. Today’s 9-1-1 emergency system is increasingly tied to underlying mobile network technology – an issue that continues to plague uniform service provision across states. The implementation of Federal programs (such as E-Rate and the Lifeline program) increasingly recognizes the importance of cellular and broadband technologies. As mobile voice networks transition fully to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such as Skype, WhatsApp, and Messenger while deleting support of older, analog phone systems – an evolving set of social policies needs to be considered by politicians and public policy specialists as special populations are alleged to be excluded from this evolution.

3. Case Studies and Success Stories

The idea of using free government smartphones to attack an array of social ills had its “ah ha” moment in Chicago in 2013. Mayor Rahm Emanuel had called together a group of citizens to discuss violence in Chicago and Etzioni was asked to moderate. Virtually all the citizens emphasized the critical role of parents. But, the violent crimes mostly happened between 3:00 and 6:00 pm. When the participation of children could be easily ascertained, the situation usually improved. Many conference participants thought that smartphones could do the job, and Etzioni was asked to draft the idea.

3.1 Chicago

This section sketches out both the potential opportunities and some of the challenges associated with free government smartphones by relating the experiences of those who offer them. The Chicago case is well known and figures significantly in the argument presented here. The New York City case illustrates the range of possibilities for tailoring these phones to good effect. The Washington case is a success story showing that co-production can work. Finally, the Mexican case demonstrates the power of direct rebates and the ubiquity of the problem that free government smartphones can address.

4. Policy Recommendations and Future Directions

Finally, future studies grappling with the same question of policy have to consider how the sheer need for the product could result in misuse of the product and infrastructure, while also misallocating resources in the process.

Second, while there are externalities to other people when a person gets a phone or subscribes to a broadband connection, the magnitude is an empirical question. Such externalities may include locational spillovers, community-level spillovers, and land use changes.

We recommend several future research directions related to the smartphones provided by the government. First, we believe that the public sector can benefit from all the wealth of IT innovations. The identification of homeless people, a campaign to check if people have already voted, healthcare, or travel with various transportation services could be useful. However, the effectiveness of governance innovation has not been explored in IT. Access to accurate information in a timely manner is central for governance to be effective. We believe this is one of our key findings: people who did not have access to any information gained the most from smartphones. In the future, if we have a smartphone plan for lower-income people in India, we should ensure data protection while designing or developing such an app.

Fourth, the smartphones with high-speed nighttime data usage would enhance the effectiveness of the smartphones. An additional top-up of 1 GB nighttime high-speed data for a month (1 AM-6 AM) could prove helpful.

Third, in some regions, the effectiveness of the policy may increase if the government were to give away satellite television antennas as well. Right now, even with a smartphone, it is hard to consume some government provided courses.

Second, the government smartphone should have at least two unique identifying features: the subscribers of the smartphone service (the beneficiaries) should have their photos pre-installed and in order to use the phone they should provide a similar pose of themselves, taken by the phone.

This study suggests a number of policy recommendations for the Indian government. First, the government should have full control over the smartphone content. The smartphones that we provide should not be normal smartphones, but rather “controlled smartphones.” For example, our smartphones should have unique hardware and should be locked and work only in experimental mode, with no possibility of flashing or rooting. The phones should have pre-installed software and only that software should be allowed to run.