[WikimediaMobile] Mobile Use in Egypt, Qatar, Palestinian Territories and Jordan - Informal Research for Wikimedia Foundation/Mobile-L

[Sara Yap]

 Hi Wikipedians/Mobil-Lians, Following the lead of others at WMF, I've
attached some non-scientific mobile notes after a 9 day visit to Egypt and
a four day trip to Qatar.

With no surprise, mobile phone usage has increased in these two countries
(call it political revolution, social media fascination, and a high
concentration of connectors/community-oriented folk). Attached are pictures
of mobile phones and a few findings which hopefully informas and maybe
piques more interest (like data gathering) on device-use in the Middle East
and North Africa.

To start...

In *Egypt*, there are four main cellular communication services:

   - Mobinil <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobinil>
   - Vodafone Egypt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_Egypt>
   - Etisalat Egypt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etisalat_Egypt>
   - Orascom Telecom
Holding<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orascom_Telecom_Holding>

In *Qatar*, the lone carrier is:

   - Qtel <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qtel>

Mobile Use and the Impact on Arabic

One Egyptian professor stated: "The uptick in phone use will cause Arabic
readership to increase; writing in Modern Standard Arabic will be helpful
or essential for people if they want to participate in the communication
wave, whether through texting or emailing. People want to stay informed on
the current events happening across the MENA region."
What Does This Mean?

Several thoughts:

- Technology could play a role in resuscitating Arabic.

- Between the varied opinions, and two different economies (Qatar and
Egypt), undoubtedly reading and writing in Arabic and English will increase.

- Arabic content on Wikipedia could boost readership on mobile
[1]<http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=465688&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16>
in
this region if people have these types of devices.

- On the flip-side, the professor and I discussed that English could also
grow as the “lingua franca”, thus decreasing Arabic readership; however, I
don't have the modeling tools to predict this. :(
Egypt

In Cairo, many locals use cheaper, no-name brand phones that have great
media functions. For many, capturing the local protests through videos and
photos is still important for sharing content with a wider audience. Of
course this is just a sample size of the community, but it reflects how
people are using technology for another different set of purposes in Egypt.
One person commented that some phones look like Transformers: one moment it
can makes calls and within seconds, snap into a camera for pictures or
videos. In general, Egyptians are heavy users of mobile phones (just sit in
the back of a taxi and you’ll witness this).
Smartphones

iPhones would be more popular if priced lower and if data was cheaper.
Cairenes use a mix of mobile brands from Korea, phones less commonly seen
in the United States. Egyptians primarily send text messages, make calls
and use the media function on a phone. Emailing is a lower priority (which
explains the lag in response time!).

In Egypt, people tend to browse the Internet less because of the costs of
sending data. Another sample size of users owned mostly Blackberries
(primarily to send text messages and email). Transferring data also costs
less on a Blackberry.
*Use of Mobile Web -- Facebook, IM apps, etc.* From a limited sample size
in Cairo, I didn't see many people using apps or logging into Facebook (dueto
high data expenses) unless they were within reach of WiFi.
Challenges of Reading Arabic on Phones and Accessing Wikipedia

1. Many people don't know that they can access Wikipedia on their phones
2. Arabic script renders incorrectly on certain mobile platforms
3. There is a lack of Arabic content on Arabic Wikipedia so people will
search less in this language
4. Data costs are high in Egypt
5. Low literacy rates, especially in the rural areas of Egypt
Samples of Phones Used in Egypt and Qatar

1. Person 1 (Egypt): uses two devices simultaneously

   - Phones: HTC Windows device and 1 iPod touch for the WiFi aspect
   - Findings: Arabic Wikipedia displays correctly on iPod touch (expected!)

2. Person 2 (Qatar): one device

   - Phone: Nokia E72 (Vodafone)
   - Findings: Arabic Wikipedia on the Nokia renders correctly on the Nokia
   E72

3. Person 3 (Egypt): one device

   - Phone: LG GS505
   - Finding: Arabic Wikipedia was garbled. Person uses phone only for
   texting and email, not necessarily for talking.


   - Added note: In Qatar, Blackberry phones and Nokia smartphones seem to
   be the preferred devices.

*Additional Research: **Interviewees from Jordan and Palestinian Territories
*
*How do people top up their phones?*
There are phone pre-paid plans where people pay a yearly fee or use a
rebate card(?).
Jawal is the most expensive. Orange, Zain and Omnia are also popular
carriers. I spoke with one Jordanian woman and she uses three phone lines.
She is committed to Orange (since '06) because the rates are good and the
network is coverage is decent. Palestinians uses Jawal which is the most
popular. Palestinians have more restricted coverage and 3G use in their
area.

*Would people be willing to do a quick surveys/answering a few questions?
Why/why not?
*It depends on the length of the survey and how will this benefit our
country (she recommends communicating the incentives to respond in the
survey). It also depends on the number on questions. 20 minutes is time
consuming for doing a survey.

*How do people get their news?
*People hear about updates on technology, companies, ideas, etc. through
Facebook and less through Twitter. Newspapers are also helpful sources of
information. She also uses Wikipedia

*Feedback*
This person (works at a tech company) and didn't know that Wikipedia could
be edited!

Shokran jazeelan | شكرا

Sara Yap

Catalyst Project Associate | Global Development
Wikimedia Foundation | http://wikimediafoundation.org/
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate>

[1]
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=465688&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
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