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Teleuse on a shoestring

In the telecommunications industries, companies are beginning to understand the needs of low-income consumers – adapting their products and business models to better serve their needs. Many commentators predict that the low-income, developing markets will be where new telecom growth will come from. A study addressing the needs of these consumers was conducted in five Asian countries, namely Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand. Given the necessity for cross-country comparisons among the less privileged strata of society, the target groups had to be defined as close as possible in a universal manner. Target participants of the study were telecom users, defined as those who had used a phone (their own or someone else’s; paid for or free of charge) during the preceding three months. Participants were males and females between the ages of 18 and 60 years, from rural and urban locations. A multistage stratified cluster sampling by probability proportionate to size (PPS) was used to select the target number of urban and rural centres. After determining the number of centres to be selected from each cell (strata in respective provinces), urban and rural areas were selected again using PPS on a constant population interval on geographically ordered centres within each cell. In each selected centre, a common place such as a road, park, hospital was designated the starting point for contacting households. Only one participant was selected from each household. In households with more than one valid participant, a random-number chart was used to select the participant. Within each country, data were weighted by gender, province group/zone and socio-economic group to correct over- or under-sampling in certain areas and socio-economic groups.