Beyond Voice: The Use of Value-added Features and Mobile Services among Youth and Young Adults in Jamaica

REGIONAL DIALOGUE FOR THE
INFORMATION SOCIETY (DIRSI)
JUNIOR RESEARCHER’S PAPER – JAMAICA
Beyond Voice: The Use of Value-added
Features and Mobile Services among Youth
and Young Adults in Jamaica
Allison Brown,
Research Assistant, Telecommunications Policy and Management Programme (TPM),
Mona School of Business, University of the West Indies
April 2008

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements………………………………………………..……………….……..5
Executive Summary…………………………………………..………………….…..…6-7
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..8
Orality in Jamaican Culture………………………………………..………….......9
Telecommunications in Jamaica: The Context ……………………………….9-11
Jamaica and the Mobile Explosion…………………………………………...12-14
Other Cases of Telecommunication Liberalization in the Caribbean......…….14-16
Summary Analysis………………………………………..…………………..16-17
2. Objectives and Definitions……………………………………………………....19
Research Objective and Research Questions…………….………………….......19
Operational Definitions………………………………………………...…….19-20
3. Literature Review………………………………………………………………..21
Perspectives on Technology……………………………………….…………21-22
Motivation, Uses and the Mobile Phone…………………………………………22
Youth Culture……………………………………………………………...…22-23
Youth Culture and the Mobile Identity………………………………………23-24
Youth and Mobile Independence……………………………………………...…24
Beyond Voice Mobile Services………………………………………………24-26
Jamaican Youth and Mobile Uptake…………………………………………26-29

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4. Methodology……………………………………………………………………30
The Method………………………………………………………….……….30-31
5. Presentations of Findings
Group 1: 16-18 Years Old……………………………………..….….32-37
Group 2: 19–21 Years Old…………………..…………………….....37-42
Group 3: 22 – 24 Years Old…………………………………...……..42-45
Group 4: 25 – 27 Years Old……………………………………….....45-48
6. Analysis of Findings……………………………………………………………..49
Overview of Trends………………………………………………………......49-53
The Mobile Phone: Fulfilling Youth and Young Adult Needs………………53-55
7. Conclusions…………………………………………………………….…….56-57
References……………………………………………………………………………58-60
Appendix I………………………….………………………………………..………61-62

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
List of Tables
Table 1: Survey Results – Jamaica Youth Usage of Mobiles (2007)…….…28
Table 2: General Findings – Group 1…………………………………….....33
Table 3: General Findings – Group 2………..……………………………...38
Table 4: General Findings – Group 3……………..………………………...42
Table 5: General Findings – Group 4………………..……………………...46
List of Figures
Figure 1: Mobile Cellular Telephone Subscribers
Per 100 Inhabitants, 1994 – 2006……………………..…………14
Figure 2: Mobile Ownership Among Jamaican Youth....…………….…28
Figure 3: The Mobile Attachment Scale ………………………………..52
List of Boxes
Box 1: Varied Levels of Attachment Toward the Mobile
in the 22 – 24 Age Group………………….……………………..45

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was carried out with the financial support from a grant given to the IEP from the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada. It was conducted in the Telecommunications Policy and Management Programme (TPM) in the Mona School of Business, UWI. The ardent and supportive supervision of Dr. Hopeton Dunn, Director of the TPM was integral to the completion of this project to the required standards and quality. As such I express great appreciation for his expert guidance in this regard. I also wish to express thanks to supporting team members who assisted in recruiting respondents, transcribing tapes and reviewing the report. They are Richardo Williams, Grace Collymore, Sanya Foster and Oliver McKenzie. Finally, the material herein could not have been unearthed without the cooperative involvement of the respondents who were not shy to relate their attitudes, perceptions and behaviour in contributing to the research project.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Jamaica provides a unique situation to investigate mobile services among low income persons. As a developing country with a GDP per capita of US$4,200.00 in 2005 (UNDP 2008), Jamaica has defied the odds in having a mobile penetration rate of 106%, one that is higher than many developed countries (OUR quoted in PIOJ 2007). This makes Jamaica a key case in the use of mobile services on a limited budget.
This study builds on the findings of an extensive quantitative survey, led by the Regional Dialogue on the Information Society and conducted in seven countries across the region including Jamaica. Among the findings was that 93.8% of Jamaicans surveyed were mobile users. The study also yielded rich results in relation to the use of mobile services among youth, finding that they had above average adoption levels of text messaging and other mobile services. In light of this data on Jamaica’s unique situation, this paper seeks to answer the questions: What value-added features and mobile services are young people using and what are they using them for? The goal was to determine how these services and features fulfill needs in their day-to-day lives covering various aspects such as security, social interaction, cost-saving, recreation and commercial activities.
A qualitative inquiry process was used to answer these questions. This methodology provided a deeper understanding of the first hand experiences and motivations of youth in relation to non- voice mobile services and features. Young persons between the ages of 16 and 27 from the urban middle class participated in focus group sessions and in-depth interviews where they discussed their use of these applications.

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Major findings of this research study were that the use of mobile services and features by youth in the age ranges 16-18 and 19-21 are driven by both cost factors as well as peer pressure. For older groups (22-24 and 25-27), business tools and business communication was a unique application. The major difference between usage by men and women was in the perspective of females that the mobile phone is a security device. Most young males were not inclined to agree with this view.
The relationship of participants to their phone reflected three forms: affinity, indifference and aversion. Personal attitudes and experiences seem to be major determinants of these attitudes.
Overall, there was an obvious propensity among youth to manipulate mobile services and features to their advantage especially among those aged 16-21 years. This is evident in some of them ‘thinking out-of-the-box’ to apply mobile application to their situation. There is a necessity to make more services available to these youth and young adults through lower tariffs on mobile Internet and other mobile data services. Jamaica, as a developing nation, needs to find ways to hone and capitalize on this capacity among its young people in making positive contributions to the nation’s competitiveness.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Since telecommunication liberalization began in Jamaica in the late 1990s, competition among mobile providers has caused the costs for mobile phones and mobile services to plummet. Owning and using a mobile phone is no longer reserved for the elite, business class but now open to wider groups including persons of lower income and young people. A plethora of value-added features have been introduced due to the fast-evolving mobile technology as well as the ever-expanding array of mobile services available. As such, people are finding more applications for their mobile phones. Youth, in particular, display a propensity towards adoption of these evolving mobile services in line with the view that “young people, rather than fearing technology, are impatient to pursue it” (Katz, 2003). This paper interrogates the uptake of such services by Jamaica’s youth population in relation to the unique characteristics of the Jamaican context.
In 2007 an extensive quantitative research project was undertaken to explore mobile usage patterns among low income Jamaicans (Dunn 2007). This was part of a major seven-country survey of Latin America and the Caribbean (Galperin & Mariscal 2007). The investigation found that 93.5% of Jamaican respondents were mobile “users”. This was the highest percentage in all the countries studied. Of the total number of mobile users, 95.5% were mobile owners. The study also found that prepaid plans were the most dominant methods of payment and that social networking was the most common application of mobile usage. Additional significant trends found among the low-income sample was the high incidence cost-saving mechanisms including text messaging. “Beyond Voice” acts as a complement to the understanding of Dunn’s findings by exploring the use of mobile phones in terms of its non-voice applications particularly in relation to one segment of the population: youth and young people. This study is different, however, because its focus was on persons of a middle class background.

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Orality in Jamaican Culture
Over the years scholars have identified that orality is of great significance to the Jamaican culture as the main method of passing on stories and cultural information. Perkins (cited in EE 2000) noted that “Jamaica has an oral culture and the history of the community has always been stored and transmitted through story-telling.” With the majority of Jamaicans being African descendants, the oral culture is a retention from a situation where Africans favoured oral traditions. In this way an oral culture developed where “voice is the means by which people lacking power in other ways can acquire and exert control” (Senior, 2005, 42). Considering the cultural propensity of Jamaicans to the use of voice and also due to the connotations of voice in terms of power and control, telephony would be expected to be embraced by the Jamaican culture as another way that stories can be passed on.
Indeed, the level of functional literacy in Jamaica has risen since the days of slavery to 79.9% (UNDP, 2008), but retentions of orality pervade in dominant forms of Jamaican culture such as in its musical and literary traditions. The mobile phone is a modern day tool which facilitates the culture of Jamaican story- telling through voice. As such, it can be argued that the largely oral culture which is an extant feature of Jamaican society is one of the drivers of high mobile uptake in Jamaica.
Telecommunications in Jamaica: The Context
Jamaica is one of the 15 Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It is numbered in the category known as the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which are of relatively small size with open and dependent economies and which are vulnerable to economic shocks and natural disasters. These vulnerabilities impact not only on the rate of development but impede the rate of recovery after such events take place. These circumstances, as well as a history steeped in colonialism and neo-colonialism, has led to economic dependence on countries of the North and international organizations for economic aid and private investment. In the words of Dunn (1995, 201), “a major consequence of British

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imperialism on the existing policy and network structure of Caribbean telecommunications’ is the region’s increasing reliance and external capital, technology and management expertise”.
In terms of the telecommunications industry, “Caribbean countries, as small, open economies are particularly vulnerable to the financial strength and private decision-making machinery of individual multinational corporations whose global budgets often dwarf the national budgets of many of these states.” A similar view is held by Lodge and Stirton (2002) who argue that “tele-colonial domination by metropolitan telecommunications carriers and suppliers and cultural (economic) imperialism’ characterized the development of Caribbean telecommunications policy up to the period of telecommunication liberalization. These observations highlight that the control of the telecommunications sector in these countries was held by multinational actors from outside the country.
In the case of Jamaica, Cable and Wireless (C&W) had control of the telecommunication monopoly since the 1880s and had strong influence on telecommunications policies. Policies that were influenced by this include the “guaranteed rate of return” on its investments and the self-regulated setting of tariffs for telecommunications (Dunn 1995, 214). This influence continued in spite of the government’s acquisition of holdings in the Jamaica Telephone Company, eventually holding a total of 82.7% in 1987. Shortly after “faced with infrastructural deterioration in the networks” the government was left to resort to the sale in a of telecommunications assets and equity to Cable and Wireless (Dunn, 1995 206). Cable and Wireless once again gained majority ownership of the telecommunications provider now holding 79% of the local telecom company and 79% of the overseas carrier (Dunn 1995, 208). It therefore inherited TOJ’s exclusive rights to wired telecommunications services in Jamaica from 1987 for 25 years (renewable for another 25 years).

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This legally-conferred exclusivity held by Cable and Wireless inhibited the possibility of breaking the monopoly in spite of an emerging international imperative towards market liberalization. The General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS) from the WTO was one such imperative in 1997. According to Dunn (2000), the GATS “set the stage for trading system rules to be applied to the area of services”. The overall goal was to increase the growth in global trade in services, including telecommunications. Due to the nation’s dependence on aid from multi-lateral organizations, this demand of the WTO would have to be met.
Aside from the imperative of the WTO, the internal telecommunications market was getting restless. Influential citizens had begun lobbying the government for introduction of competition in the telecommunications market. Rural citizens and some inner city communities had little or no access to telephony with long waiting lists for landline installation. Tariff costs for international calls were out-of- reach for the average Jamaican.
Mobile technology had been available in Jamaica since the early 1990s but there was limited use due to high access costs. Mainly upper class business persons could afford mobile phones. As time progressed to the late 1990s, Cable and Wireless introduced prepaid mobile phones, which were ‘pay-as-you-go’ and more appealing to low-income customers and some young people with disposable income. Tariff costs as well as the price for instruments remained prohibitive for most Jamaicans.
After renegotiating C&W’s exclusive rights in 1998, the Jamaican government was able to commit to the WTO’s Agreement to liberalize telecommunications and began phased implementation in 2000.

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Jamaica and the Mobile Explosion
The liberalization of the Jamaican telecommunications industry marked a turning point in the history of the national communication, as it introduced the mobile culture into the mainstream local culture. The phased process began with the liberalization of the mobile industry in 2001 which led to the entry into the market of Digicel and later Centennial (which was sold soon after and now operates as MiPhone). These entrants posed competition to the incumbent by attracting new mobile phone subscribers and by wooing those who were already Cable and Wireless customers.1 This was reflected in the fact that 100,000 persons subscribed to Digicel in their first 100 days of operation. This was a target Digicel had set for 1 year (Digicel Group 2008).
The new mobile entrants introduced affordable high tech instruments and at least one (Digicel) billed customers by the second and not by the minute. The new entrants also used a range of promotions in order to encourage new types of users to enter the mobile market. In a short span of time, Digicel became the mobile market leader with many persons abandoning their C&W landlines and opting for a mobile phone (Dunn 2006). Although this reflects a global trend in fixed-to-mobile substitution, it was also influenced by the longstanding negative sentiments many Jamaicans had towards the Cable and Wireless monopoly. These negative sentiments seemed to add fuel to their loyalty towards Digicel, which was seen as doing more for the Jamaican people.
With liberalization came greater access to international calling. As Heather Horst (2006) notes,
1 Other elements of the Telecommunication Act included the opening up of the market for data and Internet services, and wired telecommunications. By 2003, a completely liberalized telecommunications market existed in Jamaica.

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“For many Jamaicans without access to a regular or reliable phone service prior to 2001, the mobile phone is viewed as an unadulterated blessing, transforming the role of transnational communication from an intermittent event to part of daily life.”
As such international call costs, which prior to liberalization were as high as US$2.00 per minute, reduced to the cost of some local calls. Average Jamaicans no longer had to rely heavily on collect calling and over-priced international phone cards. Mobile telephony also served as an alternative to call boxes, for which persons would normally have to wait as long as 3 hours. In addition, marginalized groups such as rural and inner city dwellers which were underserved in terms of landline communication, could now access voice communication through mobile telephony although tariff costs were more expensive than a landline (Horst, 2006).
According to the WSIS (2007, 31), by 2005, there were 2.75 million mobile subscribers in Jamaica. With a population of about 2.6 million at that time, this placed Jamaica as the first middle-income nation to break the 100 per cent mobile penetration barrier. The report points out that “Jamaica’s mobile penetration is significantly above where it should be, given its average per capita income”. The very thought that Jamaica would out-strip many developed countries in mobile communication really speaks to the fact that there were some unique factors at work in Jamaica, including cultural factors and intensive competition. Figure 1 shows average levels of mobile penetration in relation to developed and developing countries. Jamaica’s mobile penetration of 106 mobile subscribers to every 100 inhabitants in 2006 (OUR cited in PIOJ 2007) was higher than even the average for developed countries. This, however, does not necessarily mean that each Jamaican has at least one mobile phone as some of this number represents a population that owns more than one mobile phone. Dunn (2008) speaks to this phenomenon as a cost saving mechanism as calls within network are normally cheaper than those between networks. In addition to the introduction of facilitating competition, the overall enthusiasm of Jamaicans to communicate by voice and the dominant orality of Jamaica’s culture contributed to this nation-wide mobile explosion and

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“disproved a long-established theory that small island economies were too small to sustain competition” (WSIS 2007).
Figure 1: Mobile Cellular Telephone Subscribers per 100 inhabitants, 1994-2006
Source: International Telecommunications Union: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/graphs/mobile.jpg
Other Cases of Telecommunication Liberalization in the Caribbean
Jamaica remains a model telecommunication environment that led in breaking the telecommunications monopoly of Cable and Wireless in the region, later to be followed by other Caribbean countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. These, the second and third largest English Speaking islands respectively, are more prosperous than Jamaica in economic terms. However, due to various factors, they lagged behind Jamaica in the liberalization process and now lag behind in terms of mobile penetration.

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Barbados
Barbados is the third largest country in the English-speaking Caribbean and reported a population of 280,000 in 2005 (Cowell and Dunn 2006). Its economy relies on services sector, particularly tourism. Cable and Wireless gained control of the Barbados Telephone Company in 1939. After nearly half a century, the sector was nationalized in 1984. In 1991, the industry was again privatized with the sale of the telecommunication providers to Cable and Wireless (Cowell and Dunn 2006). An MOU was signed in 2001 to enact a phased process of telecommunication liberalization between the government and Cable and Wireless Limited. In 2003, three companies gained mobile licences with the first, Digicel, entering the market in 2004 (Cowell and Dunn 2006). Mobile penetration in Barbados now stands at 74% indicating a slower rate of penetration than Jamaica in spite of having similar factors at work (Marketwire 2007).
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago reported a population of 1.3 million which represents a larger market base than Barbados but a smaller one than Jamaica. Trinidad and Tobago “is endowed with large energy reserves and its energy sector accounts for one-third of real GDP” (Cowell and Dunn, 2006). The services sector (including Telecommunications and ICT services) accounted for 52% of GDP in 2004.
Similar to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago had seen ownership of its telecommunication service by private entity monopoly from the 1880s to the 1960s. Labour unrest in the 1960s led to government purchase of the telephone company. It later merged with a private entity to become the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT).
Although the Trinidad and Tobago Telecommunications Act was passed in 2001 “providing for an open market for telecommunication services, including conditions for fair competition”, real competition was

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not opened up until 2005 (quoted in Cowell and Dunn 2006). This could have been because the government owned the majority stake of 51% in the TSTT with Cable and Wireless owning 49%. Although Digicel entered the market in 2006, it has not seen the immediate gains as it did in Jamaica and Barbados. This is partly due to critical interconnection issues between the incumbent and Digicel which inhibited their uptake in the market.
Evident are two major differences in the liberalization process which may account for this. Firstly, the vested interest of the government in taming the competition to its own advantage. This appears to have caused a delay in the inevitable liberalization process. Secondly, the timing was different. TSTT had an opportunity to learn from the experiences of liberalization in Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada and other countries in the region and were prepared for new entrants by building customer loyalty, improving their infrastructure and offering special promotions and advanced handsets before the entry of any competitor. In a way, this pre-empted the type of aggressive marketing strategy with which Digicel entered other Caribbean countries.
What can be noted in Trinidad and Tobago also is their mobile ownership levels where 83% of low income persons surveyed used a mobile phone as opposed to Jamaica’s 93.8% in the same survey conducted around the same time (Dunn 2007; Mallalieu and Cambridge 2007). This data may only show some lagging on the part of Trinidad due to its later introduction of competition and may not reflect a lower tendency to take advantage of convenient “talk”.
Summary Analysis
Although each case is different there is much to be noted from the comparison of the three English- speaking Caribbean nations analysed. Trends in the ownership of the telecommunications reflected geo- political trends prevalent in the eras in question. The telecommunications networks were developed in the

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region due to ‘corporatist’ relationships between private interests and the British Government “as part of the infrastructure of colonial control” (Dunn 1991; Dunn 2004, 85). Later acquisition of the telephone company by the regional governments in the first two decades of political independence was, in Dunn’s view “in response to pressure of popular expectation” (Dunn 1995, 219). In this period governments including the three highlighted here began to strengthen regional control over national resources including telecommunications. A period of structural adjustment in the region, driven by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was the backdrop to privatization in all countries. In his analysis of that period Dunn observes that “the policies of the Western multilateral lending agencies…imposed loan agreements tied to programmes of divestment and privatization” (Dunn 1995, 220). This programme of privatization led to the Cable and Wireless possessing majority ownership of telecommunication companies in 14 Caribbean countries by 2000. (Dunn 2004).
Then the imperatives of WTO which led to the imposition of liberalization were quite similar. With all countries having to rely on debt over the years in some way, there was a need to comply with the GATS. What has been found however, in the case of this comparison, is that early compliance with the GATS imperative correlates with a higher mobile penetration rate and, further, increased access to mobile communication.
In Jamaica, mobile phone usage is considered “a pervasive, constant and longstanding feature” in the lives of the majority of Jamaicans (Dunn 2007). The ubiquity of the mobile phone in Jamaica can be seen in the fact that 93.8% of the mostly low-income persons surveyed reported to be mobile users. This high level of penetration among the lowest earners (who would probably be earning less than the GDP per capita of US$4,200.00) shows that the mobile phone appealed to persons of a low income.

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While Jamaica reports 106% mobile penetration (OUR quoted in PIOJ 2007), globally in 2007 mobile penetration reached the 50% mark with 3.3 billion subscribers (Jamaica Gleaner 2007). As such, it can be noted that Jamaica’s mobile penetration appears to be far ahead of the international average and belies the country’s ‘developing’ status. However, the questions emerge: What Jamaicans are using this technology for? Are Jamaicans only using it for voice communication and the perpetuation of the oral culture or are they making use of data services and non-voice features? This paper investigates these questions especially in relation to the youth and young adult population of Jamaica.

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2. OBJECTIVE AND DEFINITIONS
With the introduction of competition in the mobile industry in Jamaica, a larger percentage of Jamaicans now enjoy greater access to the mobile telephony or any type of telephony at all. This includes the youth and young adult population which would normally have low or no income. In light of this, this study interrogates the use of mobile phones by this age group to determine their usage patterns, including their use of mobile services and value-added features.
Research Objective and Research Questions
The overall objective of this research project is to gain a deeper understanding of mobile phone use by young persons aged 16-27, especially as it relates to their use of mobile services and value-added features. The following research questions formed the basis of the study:
 What mobile services are Jamaican youth and young adults using and what are they using them for?
 What value-added features on mobile phones are youth and young adults using and what are they using them for?
 What trends can be found in this regard as it relates to age and gender differences?
 How do these mobile services and value-added features fulfill needs in the day-to-day lives of respondents?
Operational Definitions
The following operational definitions were used in conducting the study:
Mobile Services: A mobile service is any service offered by the service provider through the mobile phone. A non-voice service was defined as any service available from the mobile provider

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other than placing and receiving a voice call. This would include: using the Internet, using email and SMS messaging.
Value- Added Feature: This will be regarded as a feature which comes on the mobile phone but does not require interaction with the service provider for usage. This would include mobile cameras, Bluetooth connectivity, playing mobile music, using the alarm, scheduling and appointments.
Youth / Young Adults: The term youth is normally applied to persons between and including the ages of 15 and 24 years (UN, 2008). The term young adult can be used more loosely including persons up to the age of 35. This study will focus on persons in these groupings, but those of a specific age range.
For the purposes of this research study the age range will be 16-27 years. The rationale for choosing this range was to include a range of adolescents and young adults from high school (where they are almost completely reliant on their parents) at one end to the beginnings of their career (where most are independent) in order to compare and contrast how the use of value-added features and services change among youth with age.

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3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Perspectives on Technology
“The access, the mobility, and the ability to effect change are what will make the future so different from the present… As children appropriate a global information resource, and as they discover that only adults need learner’s permits, we are bound to find new hope and dignity in places where very little existed before…each generation will become more digital that the preceding one…” (Negroponte, 1995)
Negroponte’s words tout children as the key-holders to the digital future due to their inclination to “being digital”. Globally, as technology becomes a more intrusive and omnipresent aspect of the environment it becomes almost as second-nature to children and youth for whom that technology formed part of their socialization. This makes younger persons more in tune with advanced technology and ready to accept its possibilities in the digital age. This also puts them in control of the technology as he continues, “The control bits of [the] digital future are more than ever before in the hands of the young” (Negroponte 1995). How this control manifests itself as it relates to mobile services and features is the focus of this study.
Technology has been considered by some theorists to be solutions to human problems in a particular cultural and social context (McOmber, 1999, 138). Hutchby (2001, 444) is of this perspective, however, he considers technologies as texts which are open to various interpretations and uses. Such uses however are limited by affordances of the technology, which is the “functional and relational aspects which frame, while not determining, the possibilities for agentic action in relation to an object.” ‘Affordances’ shape possible interpretations as they provide parameters as to what can be done with the technology. The theory of technologies as texts open for interpretation is significant in studying mobile phone usage

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among youth and young adults as the applications for them could be unique based on their age, class, lifestyle, location and cultural context.
Motivation, Uses and the Mobile phone
The uses and ‘affordances’ of the mobile phone in the context of this group can be understood within the framework of Maslow’s Motivation Theory and the Uses and Gratifications Theory. Abraham Maslow, in his theory on the motivation of individuals, suggested that there are specific needs that humans are motivated to meet. They are physiological needs, safety needs, the need to belong, esteem needs and self- actualization. Needs would vary according to the context: the age, the gender, the location and the culture of an individual. Maslow’s categories will give some insight as there is investigation into the needs that are being met by mobile features and services among youth.
The uses and gratifications theory focuses on what people do with media (Chandler 1994). Similar to Maslow’s theory, uses and gratification theory, looks at media in terms of their gratification of “social and psychological needs of the individual… [as] people’s needs influence how they respond to a medium” (Chandler 1994). In this vein, Denis McQuail (quoted in Chandler 1994) identified the following needs normally gratified by various media: Information needs; Needs for personal identity; Need for integration and social Interaction; and Entertainment Needs. As such the Uses and Gratifications Theory complements Maslow’s in identifying needs that are specific to media usage.
Youth Culture
The period of youth is characterized by a mode of ‘in-betweenness’ which is no longer childhood, but not yet adulthood. Youths are more likely to be unemployed, earn a low income and have unique styles of behaviour and dress that define them as ‘different’ from other age groups. As Heaven and Tubridy (2003, 153)

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“Physical characteristics, styles of dress and behavior, language and communicative accents and numerous other distinguishing phenomena act as triggers in practices of cultural interpretation that attribute collective characteristics to the members of a particular community in a way that locates them within relationships of class, gender, ethnicity and so forth.”
Youth culture is, therefore, about consumption of popular culture in order to define oneself as part of a group, but this consumption is limited by income. Youth have to be selective in how they make use of funds available. This research study will therefore investigate the affordances of the mobile phone in relation to the ‘unique styles’ that make youth identifiable as a group and also in relation to the financial constraints which are a constant for many teens and young adults. As youths transition into adulthood, norms, priorities and habits may change. These changes, as it relates to mobile usage, will be investigated through an additional grouping of young adults just over the “youth” age range.
Youth Culture and the Mobile Identity
A major qualitative research project conducted by Gitte Stald investigated mobile usage patterns among 15-24 year old Danes. In line with perspectives of identity as the way someone understands him/herself and the world, he noted that “adolescents are constantly negotiating who they are, how they are that identity and with whom they are that identity” (Stald 2008, 143). The mobile phone for the adolescent is a symbolic link between the person and his/her social networks, which influence their identity construction.
Having a mobile phone for a young person means always being available to peers in their social group, but also to have the information of the social group readily available by always having the phone on. In addition to this ‘availability’ the mobile phone is also used to achieve a sense of co-presence and intimacy among close friends as well as it is a log of personal events and activities.

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Stald’s findings give a view of the usage patterns afforded by the mobile phone among youth in Denmark. Similar interrogation will be conducted among the Jamaican youth and young adults under study to determine whether there are types of symbolic usage for identity construction that is taking place in this context.
Youth and Mobile Independence
Various studies have pointed to the utilization of mobile phones by youth as a symbol of independence from their parents. In such studies, youth were inclined to use mobile phones as a tool for private conversations outside the ambit of parental surveillance leading to perceptions of empowerment and independence (Lorente 2002; ITU 2004). Ironically, within it being a symbol of independence from parental control there have been indications of dependence on and sometimes addiction to mobile phones among youth. According to a study by the Mobile Life Report 2006, one in nine British youth surveyed admitted to being addicted to their mobile phones in some way (LSE & Carphone Warehouse 2006). Similarly, Shari Walsh (2007) noted that several young persons show symptoms of addiction by feeling frustrated, angry or lost when they are unable to use the mobile phone. These sentiments can be related to withdrawal from an addictive substance.
Beyond Voice Mobile Services
The Meaning of Texting
Within the existing literature, Short Message Service (SMS) (in the Jamaican context, referred to as ‘texting’) has been found to be a tool almost universally used by youth. In the case of Jamaica, 8 of 10 persons surveyed in the age range 18-24, used SMS regularly (Dunn 2007). However further studies by Dunn (2008) have shown that even among young people, illiteracy affects the extent of mobile texting among the very poor in Jamaica. Other researchers have investigated the high penetration of text message usage among young people. According to Berg et al. (2003), text messages embody meaning for

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teenagers. With specialized use of the language, young persons identify themselves as part of a group with shared meanings, understandings and by extension, shared identity. Text messaging can be seen as the note-passing of the new millennium, as they can be used to communicate messages among youth in a regulated space such as the classroom (ITU 2004). Japanese youth primarily use SMS (also called mobile mail) as a “means for experiencing a sense of private contact and co-presence with a loved one even in the face of parental regulatory efforts and their inability to share any private space” (Ito and Daisuke 2005, 12).
Customization and Self-Expression
The mobile phone is a means for youth to form and express their identity through customization. According to Katz and Sugiyama (2005) in modern society, “the telephone is taken from the back stage of the home to the front stage of public life and now people observe the self presentation of others”. As such the mobile phone presents itself as a status indicator and an indication of the owner’s likes, dislikes and identity. It is through personalization with “covers, colours, icons, ringing tones, decoration, shape and size of their mobile phones” that users are no longer just consumers but also co-creators of the mobile medium. In this interaction with their mobile phones, users become more attached to the object.
Additional Mobile Services and Value-Added Features
As the mobile phone becomes a sort of ‘hand-held’ computer, its applications are vast and varied in comparison to analogue phone which had only the application of voice communication. Mobile phones are now data tools with a range of possible features and services including mobile Internet access, MP3 Music, file transfer technologies (eg. bluetooth), photography, video, graphically advanced games, calculators, appointment diaries, notebooks, alarms, clocks and GPS services.

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Van Veen (2007) notes that European youth exploit a wider range of services and phone features than adults with at least 60 per cent using their mobile phones as an avenue to receive mobile ringtones and news updates. Similarly in Asia youth are driving the adoption of mobile services and features (Instat/MDR 2005). It was found that there was a high level of mobile messaging among Asian youth but other non-voice services and features used included ringtones, screensavers, wallpaper, games and video.
In Jamaica, the uptake of mobile services other than SMS is limited when compared to developed countries described. In 2007 only 3 out of 10 had used their mobile phone to download a ringtone or wall paper. The statistics were even lower in relation to doing mobile banking transactions at 3% (Dunn 2007). Jamaica’s mobile penetration levels show that developing countries can compare with developed ones in certain ICT indicators. It is therefore necessary to investigate reasons for this limited usage of certain mobile services and features among the Jamaican youth, especially since the youth in other countries have significantly higher rates in the adoption of mobile services.
There are projections that ‘smart-phones’2 will gain in popularity in the coming years (Sacco 2007). In- Stat’s research estimates that the number of smart-phones in use around the world will increase each year by an average of 33 per cent. The uptake of mobile services and features therefore is expected to grow as a tool for a mobile workforce. By studying the usage of mobile services by youth, it is necessary to investigate whether Jamaican youth will be prepared to operate in this mobile workspace.
Jamaican Youth and Mobile Uptake
In 2006 the Jamaican youth population was 800,000 or about 30% of the overall population (PRB 2008). Youth in Jamaica up to the age of 18 are normally pursuing some type of secondary education and so are
2 Mobile phones with numerous high-tech capabilities and applications.

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still dependent on their parents for their economic needs. Once youth reach the age of 18 they will normally enroll in a tertiary institution or enter the world of work. Class differences, with varying exceptions, tend to determine which persons gain the opportunity to continue schooling as cost and entry requirements can be major inhibitors for some low-income persons. As such, middle and upper class Jamaican youth are normally more likely to continue schooling after the age of 18 while low-income youth are faced with the task of sustaining themselves.
Due to continued schooling, many Jamaican youth remain dependent on their parents for survival well into their early 20s whether residing at home or on the campus of their tertiary institution. Even after schooling is completed and young adults begin to work they may continue to live in the family home due to low starting income in their job and high real estate and rent costs (particularly in the urban centres). This could continue into the mid 20s when they may start earning a more accommodating salary that will allow them to live on their own or until they establish a family of their own. The groupings under investigation were all middle class urban youth, and so their pattern of development into adulthood would follow a similar path. Therefore they would have specific applications for the mobile phone that would be indicative of their stage in life.
In the 2007 DIRSI study (Galperin & Mariscal 2007; Dunn 2007) 1182 respondents, including youth, were surveyed regarding their mobile phone usage. Findings indicated that out of the total number of youth mobile users, 92.4% of 18-24 year olds surveyed owned a mobile phone (Dunn 2007). This compared to the overall average of 95.5% in all age groups showing that they were below the national average, which may speak to the financial constraints. However, as this study was mainly among low income persons, 92.4% is a significant level of penetration among an age group which is not likely to have much disposable income.

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Figure 2: Mobile Ownership among Jamaican Youth
Source: Dunn, Hopeton. (2007). Mobile Opportunities: Poverty and Telephony Access in Latin America and the Caribbean. Country Report – Jamaica. DIRSI-TPM.
All respondents (100%) in the age range used a prepaid service which, it is felt by respondents, allows better control of spending. Young persons were more likely to have a second hand phone, which would have been purchased at a reduced cost or given as a gift from an older user such as a parent who may have purchased a new one. Some 8.5% of 18-24 year olds reported owning a second-hand phone.
Source: Dunn, Hopeton. (2007). Mobile Opportunities: Poverty and Telephony Access in Latin America and the Caribbean. Country Report – Jamaica. DIRSI-TPM.

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The Jamaican quantitative survey conducted by Dunn (2007) provides an important framework to this qualitative study as it gives useful statistics on the uptake of mobile phones and mobile services among Jamaican youth. These statistics act as a starting point in investigating the mobile youth population.

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4. METHODOLOGY
The Method
This qualitative survey was aimed at gaining deeper understanding of mobile phone use by urban middle class young persons aged 16-27 as it relates to their use of mobile services and value-added features as defined in Section 2.
Three focus groups and three in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the experiences and perspectives of 19 youth and young adults. Participants were selected based on the criteria of age and social background as this was a study of young people from middle income families.
The group sample was a mixture of male and female urban middle class youth. In some of the cases, focus group members were already acquainted which facilitated conversation flow and some amount of openness. Each of the following age groups was represented in the qualitative investigation:
 16-18 year olds
 19-21 year olds
 22-24 year olds
 25-27 year olds
Each focus group was asked to discuss the following broad areas in the presence of a moderator:
1. Service Provider and Type of Service
2. Acquisition Patterns
3. General usage patterns
4. Call Patterns
5. Gender/Age Differences in Mobile Usage

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6. Usage of Mobile Services and Value-Added Features
7. The Future of Mobile Telephony in Jamaica
A schedule of questions was used as a guide for the moderator (see Appendix I). Each Focus Group and In-Depth Interview lasted about one hour and was tape-recorded. Verbatim transcriptions were done to capitalize on the first-hand accounts of mobile usage.
The method for analysing the data was to identify trends across age and gender in determining qualitative aspects of the youth mobile experience in Jamaica in relation to mobile services and value-added features.

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5. PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
This study sought to determine the “beyond voice” applications of the mobile phone to youth and young adult experiences through the perspectives of the subjects themselves. The voices were eager to lend their first-hand accounts to the topic. There were many new thoughts and new perspectives shared with the researcher that perhaps would not otherwise have been unearthed. What was clear in each grouping was the way their age determined, to some extent, their use of non-voice services and features of the mobile phone. This section provides an overview of the findings in each grouping.
Group 1: 16-18 years old
This group consisted of two girls and three boys all still enrolled in high school. They were all of the middle class and lived in urban areas. All used their phones for ‘calling’ and ‘texting’ with varying degrees of use of mobile services and value-added features. Three out of five used Digicel only and one used Cable and Wireless only. One respondent had two phones.
Cost-cutters
Members of this group felt a need to communicate with friends but still had to keep their mobile expenditure down. This motivated them to use cost-cutting mobile services such as ‘please call me’3, ‘please credit me’4, and ‘VIP Text’5. These were reported as the most valuable mobile services used as they were dependent on their parents and as such their mobile phone use was financed mainly by saving
3 A service where persons can send a message to a contact requesting a call.
4 A service where persons can send a message to a contact requesting credit.
5 VIP Text is a service where a group of persons can send unlimited text messages within that group for a fixed monthly rate.

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from lunch allowances. The most common non-voice services and features used by group members cost little or nothing. These included the alarm clock and SMS Messaging.
Table 2: General Findings – Group 1
Group Profile
Service Provider Data
Features / Services
Major Issues
Aged 16-18
5 participants: 3 boys and 2 girls
High School Students
Middle Class Background
3 out of 5 used Digicel only
1 out of 5 used Cable and Wireless only
1 out of 5 used Digicel and Cable and Wireless
Services
Please call me
Please credit me
‘ Texting’ or SMS Messaging
VIP Text
Features
Alarm Clock (most common)
Less common features
Camera
Internet
Bluetooth
Mobile Music
Limited / Nonexistent budget
A universal personal attachment to the mobile
The mobile assists with changing levels of responsibility characteristic of the adolescent period
There is influence from peers to have a high tech mobile phone
Use of mobile music for entertainment and status (among other features)
Security and cost as issues in phone selection for females and high end features is the motivator for males
Texting
Texting was a universal application of mobile use among these group members. It was used because of the low cost (JA$3.00 or US$0.04 per text) and its ability to accommodate ongoing conversations between friends.
Alarm Clock
The application of the alarm clock of the mobile phone to the experiences of youth was characteristic of their ‘in-betweenness’ with them gaining more responsibilities including waking themselves up. One male related that he used the phone as an alarm “because my people dem [parents] stop waking me up”. Having a cell phone with an alarm feature not only assists the adolescent in adjusting to his new

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responsibility but also eliminated the need to purchase and maintain an alarm clock therefore, indirectly contributing to cost-savings.
Innovating on Services
In addition to using the “please call me” and “please credit me” applications, one respondent disclosed that the “please credit me was itself used to send a message to someone by encrypting it in the “please credit me” request that would be sent to the contact. “Please credit me” is an free application from Digicel where the user enters “*127*(phone number)*(amount)#”. The respondent reported that instead of entering an amount, he would enter a series of numbers that would correlate to some letters represented on the mobile phone keypad. The receiver would then have to decode the message (a string of numbers) that would be translated to a message based on corresponding letters. The respondent continued to say that it cannot be used for this purpose anymore because Digicel has limited the sum that can be requested.
Through the ‘affordances’ of the provider’s mobile services, one youth in this age group have used the mobile phone to suit his need to communicate on a limited or non-existent budget. This finding demonstrates the ability of youth to creatively manipulate technology to their advantage in light of their financial constraints.
Mobile Instruments
Access to a wide range of mobile features is dependent on the type of mobile instrument the user has. High tech instruments normally come at a high cost that would be out of the reach of the average high school student. The females in this age group used less value-added features, particularly because of the type of instrument they owned. The girls only reported to using the alarm feature and sometimes the Internet.

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Features such as camera, Internet and bluetooth were reported by the males as the most important motivation in selecting their instrument whereas the girls were more concerned with cost. Mobile music was seen as necessary in filling a void when the young males found themselves bored: “You haffi have the music thing”. Respondents also noted that boys in their age range were more inclined to use their MP3 players (on their mobile phone) for competitions on who has the best songs.6 Winning one of these competitions would increase the person’s status within their peer group. The use of mobile music shows a pattern where the mobile phone is used as an interactive entertainment device, keeping the user occupied during moments of boredom. This raises is role as new media replacing more traditional media forms.
Among girls it was evident that, although their phones were not equipped with these higher-end features due to cost constraints, they did not want it to be readily noticed that their phone cannot accommodate MP3 ringtones. Both girls reported that they kept their phones on silent due to peer pressure. One explained that with “polyphonic ringtones, everybody else have ‘Pon di edge’7 and all sorts of things”, she felt pressured to keep her phone on silent to avoid being ridiculed or not being considered “cool”. For these youth, it was not only the MP3 feature that determined status but also the type of music that was used. The newer and more popular the song the “cooler” the user was considered. The user would gain “props” or approval from his or her peers especially if the ringtone was one that no one else had yet. This raised the desire among this age group to ‘stand out to fit in’. As with fashion, standing out with something brand new and unique was a factor in “fitting in” among their friends and classmates.
6 This phenomenon evolved out of competitions where DJ’s would compete with each other, also a feature of the youth and young adult culture. The winner would be the one with the best and latest songs.
7 Popular Jamaican song in late 2007 by the dancehall artiste ‘Busy Signal’.

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The female student who was teased by her peers for not having a “proper phone” (in this case an MP3 enabled phone) would make the young adult feel left out among her peers. She felt pressured to keep her use of this phone “under the radar” due to the influence of her peers. In her consideration of perspectives by her peers she said: “sometimes you kind of feel left out but you just have to look at it and say you can’t really afford it and at least you can receive a call and send a call”. Regardless of her desire to fit in, the main determinant of her handset was the cost.
Mobile Phone Theft
Some members of this group said that mobile phones can do more harm than good. It was explained that, although it was desirable to have a high tech mobile phone, it could cause the owner to be targeted by thieves. In the words of one respondent: “some people have the high tech phones … and it attracts thieves.” Youth of this age are vulnerable to mobile theft as they would have no regular access to a car and they would be likely to travel from Point A to Point B by foot or by public transport. In addition, because of the overwhelming pressure to have a high end phone, mobile theft in secondary schools is a growing problem. At least one respondent had a phone stolen from her schoolbag while in school.
The Mobile Relationship
In addition to the features and services of mobile phone, another ‘beyond voice’ application was the relationship between the user and the mobile. Overall, it was noted that the participants in this group had a sense of personal attachment to their mobile phone. All felt their mobile phones needed to always be on (except for when they were in school) to facilitate regular access to them by parents and friends. The real test of this relationship, however, came with the investigation of how respondents felt when they did not have their phone with them. It was felt this query would unearth some true sentiments of personal attachment levels. All 16 to 18 year olds reported feeling some negative sentiment when they did not have their mobile phones. Their responses are outlined below:

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Male 1: Lost
Female 1: Naked
Male 2: Lost
Female 2: Like I left part of by being at home … like only half of me walking.
Male 3: It feels like something’s missing
It was interesting that such strong metaphors and expressions were used to describe the sentiments associated with not having their phone. As this was probed it was discovered that the phone provides the dual function as a link to companions and as a companion itself. Without it there is an overwhelming sentiment that something is not right, that ‘I am exposed’ or that ‘I am incomplete’. This shows the overall utility of a mobile phone to these adolescents as it represents a symbolic link to the outside world.
Group 2: 19-21 year olds
The six respondents in the case of the second focus group were all tertiary-level urban middle class students. Four respondents used Digicel only and one used Cable and Wireless only. One respondent had one of each. All respondents in this group used Digicel as their primary service provider. Digicel was favoured because of the range of services available for cost-cutting. One respondent who used Cable and Wireless stated she wanted to switch. Digicel was unanimously considered the better provider because the provider offers better and more convenient services such as Webtext, which is a free mechanism for sending a text message from the Internet.
Respondents in this group reported using the phone for calling and texting with a few reporting the use of other applications such as cameras and mobile music. Texting was a tool used for “keeping relationships going” at a low cost. All reported that their cell phone has replaced their need for an alarm clock.

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Group Profile
Services / Features
Major Issues
Aged 19-21
6 participants: 3 boys and 3 boys
Tertiary Level Students
Middle Class background
1 out of 6 had Cable and Wireless only
1 out of 6 used Digicel and Cable and Wireless
Services
Please call me
Please credit me
Texting or SMS Messaging
Web Text
VIP Text
Features
Alarm Clock
Mobile Games
Camera
Mobile music
Bluetooth
Ringtones
Limited / non-existent budget (which meant no use of more expensive services such as mobile Internet)
Mobile as a source of entertainment and mischief
All but one felt a sense of personal attachment to their mobile
Mobile phones used as a fashion statement
The mobile as a facilitator of security and a threat to security at the same time including “hacking and viruses”
Texting
Cost cutting mobile services were the most popular including text messaging, VIP Texting and Web Text. Respondents used text messaging when they could not talk (such as in a class) and also to save money.
In this group the impact of mobile phone use on intimate relationships was more prevalent than other groups. Text messages were described as an important factor in relationship-building to keep communication lines open at a distance. It also afforded the ability to store such messages allowing the user to reminisce when going through them.
Text messages were also used negatively as evidence in lovers’ squabbles when one person goes back on his/her word. Text messages were said to have a greater impact than oral communication in some instances:

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“If you have something to say … good or bad but seeing the words kinda connect more with the person, it is more effective than hearing cause you know you have it in the phone….And if the person refuse to answer the phone, then you can send a message cause you know that it will go through.”
The use of text messaging provides something more permanent and provides a greater impact than the spoken word in virtual confrontations.
Mobile Hacking
Bluetooth was used by one respondent for amusement to “hack other phones”. In explaining the process – facilitated by specialized mobile software, the 20 year-old youth said that:
“The phone has to have Bluetooth of course and it has to be powered on. You would pick it up and you connect. You have to bond with the other phone that’s the only catch. Once you bond with the other phone you can read their messages, view their phonebook, you can activate games, you can change their volume, you can play their music, as long as it bonds with the other phone.”
This is an example of the way the mobile phone provides an entertainment source for a mischievous adolescent. It also raised the point that, with phones becoming mini-computers information security risks exist in relation to hacking as well as mobile viruses.
Other Services and Value-Added Features
Mobile Internet was not utilized at all by the respondents, because it was considered “too expensive”. This was in contrast to the high school students who did use mobile Internet services. This was an interesting contradiction because one would expect that older persons would have more disposable income. This contradiction could be explained either by the fact that older students have more personal responsibilities and not necessarily a much larger allowance from parents. An alternative explanation would be that older respondents are more inclined to make cost-efficient use of their mobile phones.

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Mobile Instruments as Fashion Trends
Respondents noted the propensity of some persons to change their cell phones based on the newness and popularity making it appear to be a fashion trend:
“… the phones are really like a fashion trend because … you have people that don’t keep their cell phone for more than a year. Every year they change their cell phone and they have like a Motorola Razr now and then there is a Sliver and so they change out. So they have to keep up with the time and change that and get the new one.”
This again shows the role of the mobile phone in fulfilling the need of the young adult to “stand out to fit in”. Having the cell phone of the latest model with unique capabilities is a fashion trend in itself and can assist in gaining approval from peers.
Mobile Phones and Security
Respondents of both sexes noted the utility of the mobile phone for security but were also aware of the converse perspective that having a high end phone can make you a target. This group was also more prone to travelling by bus or on foot. One of the respondents related the following view: “If I am on the road now at a bus stop in Half-Way Tree and my phone ring I am not going to take it out because mi ‘fraid a man look and I become a target”. A female agreed: “I believe it is not as secure as people make it to be.”
The Mobile Relationship
Similar to the first focus group, the majority had negative sentiments when they did not have their phone such as feeling “disconnected from the world”, “naked” and as if “something is missing”. This was elaborated as feeling that you are missing something that you really need: “I’m missing my calls; I can’t get to text when I want to, I can’t even get to call when I want to so it is kind of like I am disconnected or

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missing from the world”. The respondent describes that not having her cell phone means not having her link to the outside world, and missing essential day-to-day information.
One of the males showed a different type of dependence by stating that: “The thing is whenever I leave my phone at home you know it’s not the calls that bother me it is the time. I always seem to want to know the time whenever I don’t have my phone.” This shows a dependence not only on the mobile phone as a link but also through its value-added feature – the digital clock. The more useful features that appear on a mobile phone and the more it eliminates the need to buy a wristwatch, to have a physical address book, to buy an alarm clock, and other physical tools used to make life easier. People appear to be becoming more increasingly dependent on mobile phones for this reason. This participant’s attachment had little to do with the mobile phone as symbolic link to his network of friends. It was more as its utility as a convergent tool with a range of features in one central portable, handheld device.
One female, however, did not exhibit these traits of dependence on her mobile phone at all. In fact, she showed some signs of aversion. This was evident in her mobile phone use:
“I do not like cell phones. I am being really honest; I will buy the cheapest cell phone you will find. I feel like that is all I really need to call somebody and probably send a text message once in a while. I don’t like getting phone calls. I am one of those people who probably in the middle of the day I just shut off my cell phone and throw it in the bottom of my bag.”
This is an alternative to the type of relationship that others in this age group had with their phones. When probed further, there was an indication that not being available by mobile phone led to a greater sense of freedom from parental control. The reason given for this apparent aversion to mobile phone use was:
“…because of my parents. When I got my phone I was about 15 and one of the things that they said to me was ‘when you go out I want to know where you are’ and they lecture me about the whole safety issue.”
In rebelling against her parents’ use of her mobile phone to know where she is (implicitly meaning that they want to control her movements) the respondent terminates the possibility of any real-time link to

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anyone through her mobile phone. Her negative sentiments towards having her cell phone around and on are linked directly to her relationship with her parents and their perception of the mobile phone as a control device.
In the case of the 22-24 year olds there were only three respondents as the three additional respondents that were expected did not show up. This was handled through successive interviews with the 2 females and 1 male who did attend. All were urban middle class university students who were also part-time workers. This introduced the aspect of an income, though limited, that was independent of what parents provided.
Group Profile
Features / Services
Major Issues
Aged 22-24
3 participants: 1 boy and 2 girls
Students with Part time Jobs
Middle Class Background
Services
Please call me
Mobile Radio
Web Text
Features
Personalized and MP3 Ringtones
Alarm Clock
Mobile Games
Camera
Limited budget but some independently-earned income leads to some choice in the instrument selected
This group wields greater power in the decision making process
Cost- saving still an important factor in the use of services
There is a range of levels of attachment to the mobile phone
There are young persons who are averse to the increasingly convergent mobile phones
All respondents in this age group used Digicel as their mobile provider. It was considered that Digicel had more options for the low budget consumer, as well as more user- and customer-friendly service. The male in the group went further to say that the Cable and Wireless monopoly led to the “exploitation of the

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Jamaican people, so when Digicel entered the market it was a life saver for me.” The strong language used here is a microcosm of the general sentiments of many Jamaicans in relation Digicel’s entry. Digicel is still seen by the mass of the population as the champion for non-elite mobile users and Cable and Wireless the opposite.
The two girls were more inclined to making use of features such as the alarm, the camera, the Internet, calculator and spreadsheets. Internet was not used regularly but was considered useful on the rare occasion, for example in the event of a hurricane where there is no electricity. Both girls opted for a high- tech sleek phone. The male felt that phones were to be used for the purpose of placing and receiving calls only and was not preoccupied with the look. This reflected in the type of phone he had which was a low- end inexpensive model. In his own words:
“My usage of the cell phone is all about receiving and sending calls, it has no other usage to me. Phones are developed at such a stage where it is now being used for camera facilities … games, use of storing media files, even storage for documents and stuff like that. But my phone as again I will repeat is used for its traditional usage, what it was intended for originally, as a means of sending and receiving calls.”
This shows for the first time a male who was not interested in value-added features. His disinterest, he expressed, had to do with his aversion to a convergent device. This introduces an opinion not heard from any other respondent in the previous groupings, that is, ‘a phone should be a phone’ and nothing more. He believed the range of emergent features added no value to his mobile phone usage.
Texting
The use of texting was applied to the specific stage in life for some members of this group as an opportunity to maintain contact while appearing professional. Text messaging is useful at work where one may be under surveillance by superiors:

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“I was working earlier today and my sister called me, and the lady that employs me was nearby. I am kind of new there and I didn’t want to be on the phone on a personal call asking her if she picked up my prescription yet. So I texted.”
It was also reported as useful when one is not interested in having a long conversation. “I also use it if I don’t want to have a conversation with that person. I just want to say hi so they know you care about them but you don’t have to encourage this long conversation.”
Mobile Relationships
In this group there were three different levels of attachment to mobile phones. One female expressed extreme affinity towards the phone. It appeared to be a comforting companion without which she felt cut off from the world. The other female respondent, normally had her phone on silent, and ignored it until she needed to make a call or use one of the features. This again was in avoidance of the parental link although the avoidance of control was not as strong. The male found the phone annoying and intrusive and was glad when he did not have the phone with him. Insights on the varying levels of attachment indicated are presented in Box 1.

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Box 1: Varied Levels of Attachment Towards the Mobile Phone in the 22-24 Age Group8 Affinity – Janelle “I love my cell phone, I love using it. I keep it on me if I’m walking even if I’m in my house moving from room to room.” “I like to just look at it, sometimes it is just to have something familiar near me… When I have my phone and hear it ring I feel some type of comfort…I guess I feel comforted by the fact that I have access to others.” “I feel lost without it. I would find myself reaching for it like to calculate something … for me not having it is a burden, I feel cut off from the world.” Indifference – Nardia “Basically, in the morning I put it [my mobile phone] in my bag and it stays in there all day, unless I’m nearby my bag and I hear it ring. I have the ring on just one beep.” “My friends complain that it is called a mobile for a reason, so I should always have it with me. It’s neither here nor there for me because the people that usually call me are the people I usually see on a daily basis like my friends that work at the lab… and then there’s my mommy. She calls me for the least thing. ‘You know the flowers need to water?’ She usually calls for stuff like that. There is really no need to keep the phone on me because sometimes it is not urgent.” Aversion – Mark “…it [the mobile phone] ensnares you in this interconnected world. It’s like you are trapped. They are constantly calling you…. It’s an intervention in your personal space. Because of this you don’t have time for your self anymore.” “My phone is used by other persons as a means of getting information. I’m a tutor and people consider me as someone who knows stuff. So people tend to call me to get information to find out stuff to help them do something. That annoys me.” “The majority of the times, I thank God when I don’t have the phone, thank God that person did not get to contact me today… .With it I feel trapped.”
This group was made up of three males and two females of an urban middle class background. All were full-time workers and therefore all had a regular income. Four out of five respondents used Digicel as their primary provider. This group took a more analytical stance when discussing the differences between
8 All names are pseudonyms.

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the providers.9 Digicel was considered more innovative and Cable and Wireless more reactive in terms of the offering of appealing services. But in the words of one participant, Digicel is no longer offering the best promotions because they are now comfortable in the marketplace:
“Digicel came out with better phones and better coverage and they used to offer you special incentives like free text messages for a month and some other special deals. Now that they have the bulk of the market, Digicel offers nothing because they don’t have to. No matter what Cable and Wireless offers they will never actually get somebody to switch from Digicel because most of the people that they speak to are on the Digicel network.”
Group Profile
Services / Features
Major Issues
Aged 25-27
5 participants: 3 boys and 2 girls
Full- time workers
1 out of 5 used Cable and Wireless only
1 out of 5 had both Cable and Wireless and Digicel
Services
Please call me
Synchronization
Features
Alarm Clock
Calendars
Appointment Schedules
Camera
This is the first group where the regular use of text messaging was not universal.
The work life dominated the mobile experiences of these respondents
Men in this group were more likely to believe that the mobile phone only gives an ‘illusion of security’
Texting
All but two respondents used text messaging regularly giving reasons that (1)“Texting doesn’t work for me because I love to talk” and (2) “I have no patience... sometimes I would just dial the number instead of
9 Interestingly, the third mobile provider – MiPhone – never emerged in discussions as an option for the youth interviewed

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trying to send a text message”. Text messaging was used in “all circumstances” by one male respondent. In his words:
“I hold endless text conversations with friends. It’s kind of almost like MSN10 on your phone .... Also if somebody is in a situation that they cannot answer the phone but they want some information, for example you are at a party and the person cannot hear you and asking where you at, you can just text him.”
Messaging therefore fits neatly into the youth’s entertainment-driven culture. It also relates easily to other norms and customs such as instant messaging.
In the case of this group, the women were keener to have a basic mobile phone for just sending and receiving calls. Only one of the three men had the same perspective stating that he just needed a phone to talk. The other two males required a camera phone and other advanced features such as being able to synchronize it with the office computer. Camera phones were used by two of the respondents as a convenient way to capture unique situations. Other value-added features used were work-related such as calendars and appointment schedules. Mobile music (MP3 players or mobile radio) was not used by the members of this group as their use of features appeared to be more business oriented than entertainment- oriented.
Mobile Phones and Security
The mobile phone was considered to be a tool of security mainly by the women, with one even adding that it made her feel more “socially secure”, in the sense that people are liable to judge you based on what you have. The men were less inclined to view physical security as a benefit of the mobile phone. In a comical response one male participant stated that:
10 MSN is a popular online Instant Messaging Service.

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“In the case of a minor situation, something that is not life threatening, having a phone would be a plus but before I had a phone I would have found some way to ride it out. But if it was something critical like a man in front of me with a gun, mi cannot take out mi phone and shot the man.”
The converse argument was noted with the consideration that a high end cell phone could make you a target.
Another youth with an aversion similar to Mark in Group 3 stated that mobile phones “invade your privacy”.
“they feel that they have the right to invade your space when they feel like and I have found a problem and it could be based on my own circumstance or it could be based on the groups that I have been affiliated with that requires communication with a lot of people and so for example when I used to live on hall, we had students calling at 12 o’ clock, 1 o’ clock in the nights with different issues and I felt that that was really a problem.”
So it appears that where persons, particularly men, occupied some leadership role there would be a lot of incoming communication facilitated by the cell phone. We saw this exhibited in Mark in Group 3. It seems from these two cases that the continuous inflow of calls contributed to this aversion. On the whole members of this group were not inclined to have extreme emotions when they did not have their phone. They only noted that depending on responsibilities, not having your phone could impede your progress. Even in this perspective is another indication of the business-oriented view of the mobile phone.

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6. ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS
Overview of Trends
Across all groups the primary purpose of the mobile phone was to send and receive calls. Non-voice applications included SMS Messaging, cost-cutting services and non-tariffed features. The following overall trends were noted in relation to age and gender.
Digicel: Prevalent, Popular and Fashionable
Among the notable trends was the prevalence of Digicel as the preferred mobile provider among respondents. Its popularity is reported by respondents to be due to its innovative and creative service offerings and therefore interlinked with the use of mobile services among respondents. Digicel appears to be the more flexible option in the sense that it appears to always be coming up with new ways to cater to low-budget customers.
There was the suggestion in one of the focus groups, however, that the reason for the popularity of Digicel had more to do with the fact that it is the dominant network. This would make it generally cheaper to use as most contacts are already on that network. In addition youth, with the yearning to fit in with their peers, would be likely to subscribe to the same network as their friends. As such, even subscribing to Digicel can be considered a fashion statement or the ‘in thing’ among youth.
Cost-Cutting Services
Cost-cutting services were among the most prevalent services used. This included the ‘please call me’ the ‘please credit me’, Webtext and the ‘VIP text’. The relevance of these services reduced with higher age ranges. These services were hardly utilized by the income earning 25-27 year old group. Members of this

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group were also less inclined to make use of text messages. There was a low incidence across the board of more expensive services such as the mobile Internet.
Texting
Text messaging was an almost universal application among the sample as a low cost mobile service. Only two respondents did not use text messaging regularly and they were both in the oldest age group. The application of text messaging was to gain a sense of co-presence with friends and partners when they were at a distance. It was also used to create a private space for the sender and the recipient even in the presence of others and in a regulated environment such as school or work.
The 19-21 age group most readily saw its application to intimate relationships as a way to store messages as ‘lovers’ keepsakes’. This could indicate that intimate relationships are a high priority for students of college age, but it could also reflect a greater amount of openness in this particular group in not being shy to talk about their relationships. It is significant though that this group, without any prompting, readily suggested the application of text messages to their relationships with boyfriends / girlfriends. Therefore using it in their relationships appears to be a high priority for them.
Value-Added Features
It was noted by respondents that the mobile phone has replaced the physical alarm clock and physical wrist watch. In some cases it also replaces the appointment diary. In these ways, the mobile phone is contributing to a world that is becoming more and more digital with less need for some physical objects. It can be noted that with the convergence of a multiplicity of services in a single portable object, users are more likely to incorporate its features into elements of their daily life. For example, the digital clock on the mobile phone eliminates the need for a wristwatch and because the phone is always with you anyway, you would be inclined to make use of it and not a wristwatch. There is evidence, however, that a result of

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the convergence of these features there would be increased dependence and emotions of attachment to mobile devices.
In almost all age groups, females were more likely to have a phone without high end capabilities. The only exception was the 22-24 age group where the male involved had no appreciation for the increasingly convergent mobile phone. The finding, however, is not to be discarded due to this inconsistency, because it does show an overall indication that men are more likely to own feature-rich mobile phones. In the event of the younger females they wanted to have a feature-rich phone but could not afford it. They also felt peer pressure to have a high end phone. Females in the 22-24 age group, on the contrary, had a disposable income and therefore more control over the phones they purchased. Ladies in the 25-27 age group had no interest in having anything more than a ‘basic phone’. So the determination whether one has a feature-rich mobile had to do in the first place with being able to afford it, and then in wanting to have it. Cost was more of a factor for the youngest females than any other group.
Another observation is that whereas the main use of mobile features and services for the lower age groups (16-18 and 19-21) was for social contact, the older groups mixed social networking with business related applications. Services such as synchronization and email were used by members of the 25-27 age groups whereas spreadsheets and calculators were the business applications of mobile features among the 22-24 age group.
‘Out of the Box’ Applications
Respondents in the two youngest age groups found innovative ‘out of the box’ applications to mobile services and features. Through the unconventional use of the ‘please credit me’ application and through blue-tooth hacking, the younger respondents used everyday mobile applications to fulfill specific needs. This supports the sentiment that young persons handle technology like second nature to achieve their

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particular ends and is in line with Negroponte’s observation that children and young adults tend to be in control of modern technology.
There appears to be a wide scale of commonality in relation to attachment or aversion to the mobile phone among respondents. There were different levels identified here as: affinity, indifference and aversion. In terms of affinity, this extreme level of attachment to the mobile phone appeared to be strongest among the youngest respondents (16-18 years). The older the group, the more likely one or more persons would have indifference or aversion to the mobile phone. In the final group, among the 25-27 year olds, none of the respondents used extreme metaphors and expressions to describe their feelings when detached from their phone.
Figure 4: The Mobile Attachment Scale
Mobile indifference, in at least one case, was affected by the relationship of the mobile phone to parents. If the mobile phone appears to be a tool for parents to make persistent contact, whether for control or other types of communication, an indifferent attitude may emerge. These indifferent attitudes due to parental control appeared in girls and speak to the tendency of some Jamaican parents to be over-
Mobile Attachment Scale
Affinity
Indifference
Aversion

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protective of their daughters while not being protective of their boys. It would appear that an indifferent attitude would emerge when the mobile phone failed to be a symbol of independence for these young girls.
Boys appear to be more likely to have an aversion to the mobile phone. This appears to be directly related to their role as a leader among other young people, and so information and advice from them was in high demand. The two boys considered the mobile phone, when used in this way to be an unwelcome invasion of privacy. When girls exhibited averse attitudes to mobile phone it again correlated with the use of the mobile tool for control by parents. Overall, the relationship with the mobile was directly connected to the interrelations it facilitate, strengthening the viewpoint that is it is a symbol of social networks and relationships. It was ironic that in spite of an indifferent or aversive attitude towards the mobile phone, they all had a mobile in the first place and they all carried it around with them.
The Mobile Phone: Fulfilling Youth and Young Adult Needs
For members of the sample, the mobile phone appears to have several applications to suiting their needs outside of its primary usage as a form of voice communication. A prevalent factor for many of the youth in the sample was their financial constraints. Mobile services such as mobile email, mobile Internet and various types of mobile commerce were not a priority for these persons as they mainly had a need to communicate within low income budgets. This could explain the patterns of limited uptake related to mobile services among youth.
There was much higher uptake for cost-saving mobile services. Such services appear to be tailor-made for the low-budget persons that would be in the group under study. This would be a contrast to the more developed countries of Europe and Asia where the uptake for mobile commerce applications of the mobile is higher among youth. As a part of a middle-income less developed country Jamaican youth, even

54
if part of the middle class, would not be able to afford mobile commerce applications. They would more likely be preoccupied with using the most basic and inexpensive features. This speaks to the need to make costs for mobile Internet and similar services cheaper so that they can be accessed by more youth and young adults. Further, a critical need that the mobile phone did not fulfill to any great extent was information. Although it made information relative to the individual available through communication with contacts, the range of information tools available on the Internet was hardly used due to the cost.
Mobile services assisted some youths in their pursuit of fulfilling their need to belong. The mobile phone assisted them in ‘fitting in’ by being a symbolic link to their friends and family and therefore assisting in reflexive identity construction. In addition, peer pressure was an influence in selection of the instrument for younger groups. The newer and more technologically advanced your phone, the great the approval from friends and peers.
Mobile music was a tool, especially among boys in their bid to ‘stand out to fit in’ by having the latest songs on their mobile phone. Popular music is a part of what is fashionable among youth. In the same way the walkman was a portable novelty item two decades ago, now the musical mobile phone is the novelty item of choice for exhibiting musical tastes to the world. As music is a significant factor of the Jamaican culture and a part of youth trends, the popularity of mobile music among youth (especially those below 25) is not surprising.
Security was a motivating factor for some to have a mobile phone. However, in a strong contradiction, security was also threatened by having one. The fact that the item can make one feel physically secure and physically insecure at the same time is a paradox of the technology. This is in line with Mick and Fournier’s theory that there are paradoxes to technology (1998, 123). In spite of this paradox, the youth continue to carry mobile phones which are apt to attract thieves and which could threaten security.

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The need for entertainment was also fulfilled by mobile services through the use of games, bluetooth information sharing, cameras, mobile music and by communication itself. The mobile phone had no doubt become a challenge to traditional entertainment media such as television and radio due to its portability and the multiplicity of features which it can hold. The advantage of the mobile phone over these media is that it is a personal tool and many of the features such as the camera and mailbox would be able to store information that is unique and special to the individual. This is not possible with mass media.
Overall though, the main ‘beyond voice’ function of the mobile phone for the young persons interviewed was in simply ‘being there’ as symbol of their social contacts and as a handy companion which physically and aesthetically becomes a part of the person. It is a memory store and game box that provides companionship in times of boredom or can be a link to a companion in a time of boredom. But in its omnipresence and attachment to the human, it becomes an object of dependence especially for younger respondents creating new needs as it fulfills old ones.
In the overall analysis it has been found that the younger the age of respondents, the more likely they would be to prove Negroponte’s theory that “the control bits of [the] digital future are more than ever before in the hands of the young”. There was also evidence that as youth move into adulthood their control of the mobile phone, especially among males, would translated into the utilization of a range of business tools.

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7. CONCLUSIONS
It is clear that mobile features and services have become part of the lived experiences of youth in Jamaica. The phone is a part of their social reality which coincides neatly with other aspects of youth culture. As it relates to the youngest groups, however, there are constants within their culture and way of life that impacted on the way they see and use the mobile phone including dependence on parents and cost considerations.
Although the most common usage of the mobile phone is voice communication, there is evidence that youth are using other mobile services and features in their everyday life. The mobile phone is becoming an increasingly convergent device with layers of available tools, even in the most basic instrument. As the tiny device begins to hold more features the more valued it is by the owner and the more likely it would be considered valuable by a thief. Dependence on the convergent object which is at once a memory box, appointment diary, clock, camera, address book, etc, is reflected in the attachment that many of the respondents have to the mobile phone, and conversely feelings of detachment when they do not have it.
There were differences in usage by age range as young groups were more likely to make use of cost- cutting services. Across the board, however, the features and services used regularly were of low or no cost. Texting was the most prevalent of the services while others which were used were related to specific needs, such as the alarms and games.
There were differentiated levels of mobile attachment found in the form of:
- Affinity
- Indifference

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- Aversion
Affinity was the most common level of attachment among respondents. Lower levels of attachment came about due to some negative association with the connections facilitated by the mobile phone.
Mobile features and services were used as a fashion statement for younger groups to gain the approval of their peers and as tools for business and recreation for older groups. Peer pressure and cost constraints were strong determinants of mobile phone usage among younger groups whereas older groups appeared to exercise their own choice more often.
As it relates to mobile services and value-added features, Jamaican youth show an inclination to manipulate the technology to their benefit as it appears to be second-nature to many of them. It is encouraging that the youth and young adults who are demonstrating such high levels of understanding and interacting with the technology will be the leaders of the coming decade. However, there needs to be a greater thrust towards reduction in costs for mobile Internet and similar information-rich services which can be a vital information source for young persons. As we look towards a future where mobile broadband, mobile work and mobile education will be commonplace, it is important to capitalize on the propensity of many of these young people to make use of technology in innovative and creative ways towards the development of Jamaican society.

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REFERENCES
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Berg, S., Taylor, A. and Harper, R. (2003). Mobile Phones for the Next Generation: Device Designs for Teenagers. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, Florida, USA.
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Cowell, N. and Dunn, H.S. (2006). Telework: New Forms of Work and Employment Opportunities in the Caribbean. Prepared for IDRC. Kingston: UWI.
Digicel Group. (2008). About Us: The Story So Far. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from http://www.digicelgroup.com/group/the_story_so_far.php.
Dunn, H.S. (1991). Telecommunications and Underdevelopment: A Policy Analysis of the Historical role of Cable and Wireless in the Caribbean. (Doctoral Thesis, Communications Policy and Technology Centre, City University, London U.K.)
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Beyond Voice: The Use of Value-added Features and Mobile Services among Youth and Young Adults in Jamaica

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Beyond Voice: The Use of Value-added Features and Mobile Services among Youth and Young Adults in Jamaica