Courtesy of The Economist, an article on North Korea’s uptake of mobile telephony:

South Korea is well known for its love of mobile phones. So central are they to daily life that pedestrian crossings in Seoul, the capital, often have green lights embedded in the pavement to tell the phone-entranced that it is safe to go. Isolated by sanctions and regime-enforced seclusion, North Korea trails its neighbour, and the rest of the world, in technological adoption. But new research suggests that it might be better connected than previously imagined (see chart).

Martyn Williams and Natalia Slavney of 38 North, a programme that analyses North Korea and is run by the Stimson Centre think-tank, pored over photographs and satellite images of the country and identified more than 1,000 cell towers. By plotting their locations they were able to map the extent of North Korea’s two mobile networks. Their findings suggest that signal can be found far beyond the major cities and even deep into the countryside. They assume that there are more towers to be found, meaning that coverage is likely to be even wider than they have shown.

The researchers also interviewed a number of defectors to figure out the extent of mobile-phone penetration and how the devices are being used. Based on this and previous data, they estimate that there are 6.5m-7m subscriber lines for the country’s almost 26m inhabitants. There are probably more lines than users: as North Koreans are limited to one contract, which comes with a limited number of cheap minutes, they often persuade non-phone-owning friends and relatives to take out a subscription on their behalf.

The handsets are often mid-level Chinese-made Android phones, similar to those found in pockets around the world. In North Korea they tend to be rebranded and configured by the state to limit their functions. But the networks, the first of which was set up in 2008, use somewhat antiquated 3G technology. South Korea, by contrast, is already working towards a 6G network.

Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s dictator, promised infrastructure improvements to telecoms infrastructure back in January 2021. They are yet to materialise. Perhaps that is unsurprising. Getting hold of the technology to upgrade is tricky. How North Koreans use their phones might also offer some explanation. Mobiles allow ordinary North Koreans to communicate with one another directly, and facilitate interactions among the producers, wholesalers, middlemen and vendors that keep the country’s markets running. The regime has always discouraged interpersonal ties for its own protection, and is allergic to economic activity it cannot control. Perhaps Mr Kim’s slowness may reflect a realisation that one of Lenin’s supposed maxims is out of date. Capitalism no longer begins in the village marketplace—it starts with a call.