Llamadas: mobile+human pay phone
Posted: August 14th, 2008 | 10 Comments »
One of the most interesting service you find on the street in Peru (and I am sure you can also get it in other countries) is the “llamadas”. It’s generally women or teenagers with a bundle of mobile phones and a stop-watch who act as pay phones. They wear colorful clothes with mobile carriers brands and the “llamadas” logo (that they also shout when you pass by).
In the example below taken in the village Ayaviri, you can see a local coming with the phone numbers written on her notepad to ask the llamadas to call it. They are ubiquitous in city centers, often found near the Plaza de Armas.
A sort of mobile human phone booth in a sense, a proxy for your call.
The presence of the logos on the jackets made me wonder: Is this a grassroots service, or a the llamadas contracted/sponsored by the carriers themselves?
From what I was told, it’s not grassroots but paid/put in place by the carriers
[...] wie neue Technologien in der Dritten Welt auch zu neuen sozialen Praktiken führen können, hat Nicolas Nova in Peru entdeckt. Dort gibt es die sogenannten Llamadas: Its generally women or teenagers with a bundle of mobile [...]
[...] Martin pointed me to this blog post about a phone service in Peru carried out by so called “llamadas”. They are: women or [...]
[...] about other communication services like the llamadas, it’s interesting to note how technologically-mediated interactions are important in that [...]
[...] It’s generally women or teenagers with a bundle of mobile phones and a stop-watch who act as human pay phones. They wear colorful clothes with mobile carriers brands (see photo above) and the “llamadas” [...]
Claus, it’s not contracted. What they serve is for the customer to know who to look for when they’re calling one carrier or the other, as it is cheaper to use Movistar to call other Movistar phones or Claro for other Claro phones.
[...] the rest here. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Design in the wild: Human Pay Phones”, url: [...]
[...] Also because after going 3 times to latin america for one year, I noticed how it could be an interesting field of observation. This paper is interestingly anchored in both relevant theoretical and [...]
[...] It’s generally women or teenagers with a bundle of mobile phones and a stop-watch who act as human pay phones. They wear colorful clothes with mobile carriers brands (see photo above) and the “llamadas” [...]