The Hindu : National : Learning cellular phone manners

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

National

National

Learning cellular phone manners

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 8. Be it talking loudly in cinema halls and hospitals or setting the ring tone to ear-splitting decibels, Indians are yet to learn the basic cell phone etiquette. Consumers in Western nations are educated on the same by cellular service providers at the time of purchase.

Lack of awareness

"There is a low-level of awareness among Indians on basic cell phone manners," says T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General of Cellular Operators Association of India. "There may be socio-cultural factors behind it, or it may be simply due to the novelty of the gadget that has not yet worn off and to them it is still something to show-off."

New market

An official of a cellular service provider said: "The Indian cellular market is a new and inexperienced one compared to the U.S. and they have a lot to learn still about the gadget. The Indian consumers have voice dependency to a great extent. They require to be connected at all times. Whereas in the older and more vast markets such as that of the U.S. and the U.K., where mobile phones have been around for some time, the voice dependency is not as great."

People here willingly defy the basic ground rules such as switching off the phone in public halls, condolence meetings, lectures, theatres and hospitals. There is no available literature provided to the customer on this issue when he buys a phone and there have been very little efforts made till date to educate people in cell phone etiquette, he says.

While most service providers concede that the manual that they provide at the time of setting up connections has no separate section dedicated to "cell phone etiquette," or the "beginner's dos and don'ts," they say that they sometimes verbally counsel at the time of purchase.

Need for laws

Mmost experts in the industry feel that there should be mandatory laws in this regard, to stop the violation of public comfort by a loud and unruly cell phone user. There is also precious little material available on the internet, especially in the Indian cellular websites.

"It is time that we really did something about this, considering the three-crore plus consumers we have in this country. Maybe we will take this issue up with our core group in the next board meeting,'' said Mr. Ramachandran — PTI

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