SJS8 - "Affordability and Mobile Telephony in Latin America"

Source: Galperin, Hernan. "Affordability and Mobile Telephony in Latin America."
     Proyecto Afrolatin@, vol. 1, 28 June 2012. Accessed 5 June 2017.


Author Credentials: Hernan Galperin is a professor of research at USC's Annenberg School for Communication. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and is an expert in communications, foreign relations, and information technology. He has researched this and similar topics extensively and seems to be a very reliable source.

Summary: The article details a study conducted to determine the affordability of mobile phone usage in Latin America. It examines the different tariffs put on the services across Latin American countries, and finds them to be generally higher than those in more developed countries. Next, the article talks about how affordable cell phone services are for the lower class. When compared with the lower classes' average incomes, almost all the countries in the study had tariffs that were generally not affordable for these people. Finally, the article mentions how Latin American people use cell services significantly less than many other regions, probably because of the high and unaffordable tariffs.

Analysis: The article is very thorough in going through the research conducted. It includes several graphs that plot out the various tariffs and wage gaps, to back up and showcase the research done. The article also poses different reasoning and viewpoints to help explain the data. It compares data found to data of other regions, such as South Asia, to put it into perspective. While Galperin is Latino himself, and a bit of bias is present because of this, he does an overall good job of keeping the article as objective as possible by relying on facts and numbers instead of opinions.