Phone firms snare a good catch

Two years ago, Jeevan Jose acquired a mobile phone. Since then, says the fisherman who lives on the Vadanapilly coastal belt of Thrissur, his profit in the peak fishing season has doubled. "Mobile phones help us to strike deals once our daily catch is in the boat and much before we reach shore.

We are also able to do business with traders in several ports, not just one, at the same time. As we are constantly in touch with all the major seafood markets on the coastal belts of Kerala and Karnataka, we find the market that offers the best price and direct our boats there.

Thus we manage to get the best prices for our catch," he explains. Such stories are creating mobile phone folklore. But the mobile phone certainly has transformed fishermen's lives in Kerala. They've become more prosperous "" and their lives at sea have become a trifle safer.

Joseph Xavier Kalapurackal, secretary of the Kerala State Fishing Boat Operators' Association, says that fishermen borrowed money from moneylenders and local finance companies to acquire a mobile phone and have since repaid their loans and the four to five per cent monthly interest.

Their living standards have improved. Many of them own television sets, fridges and other consumer durables. Some have shifted into pucca houses from thatched roofed huts.

Others who used to work for boat owners have now banded together in groups of five to 10 to buy their own fishing boats.

T A Xavier, committee member of the Munambam Fishing Boat Operators' Welfare Association, says that some fishermen have started sending their children to good schools. Xavier says that, thanks to mobile phones, the earnings of fishermen have doubled.

"Those who earlier used to earn Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 a week now earn Rs 4,500 to Rs 6,000 every week," says Xavier.

Kondangallur-based fisherman Mohammad Yusuf underlines the many advantages that mobile phones bring to the fish trade, as does K C Antony, secretary of the South Indian Boat Operators Association.

A mobile phone allows groups of fishermen to collaborate and it can be used to call for help in emergencies.

Fishermen also call other fishermen at sea to inform them where plenty of fish are to be found, Antony says. "When we set out for deep sea fishing and if there is a great catch in an isolated area, we pass on the information.

Often the agents come in their boats to sea and take away our catch while we continue fishing. This saves us a lot of time and money," he adds.

The state's mobile service providers, BPL Mobile Cellular and Escotel Mobile Communications, cover Kerala's 600-km coastal strip and their services are available 25 km out to sea.

Indeed, some fishermen claim that mobile signals in the fishing belt of Sakthikulangara in Kollam are available 100 km offshore. Evidence of just how widespread the use of mobile phones is becoming in the fishing community comes from BPL Mobile Cellular deputy chief operating officer K A Mohammed Saleem who says that 20 out of every 100 BPL Mobile subscribers are fishermen.

Saleem reckons that around 60,000 fishermen in the state subscriber to mobile phone services "" or 8.57 per cent of the state's seven lakh subscribers to cellular services. The state's other major cellular service company, Escotel, has 20,000 fishermen as customers, or 8 per cent of its total clientele.

Says Saleem: "Our company is looking at a 15 per cent annual growth in this segment and we are pulling out all stops to achieve these numbers."

Escotel chief operating officer (Kerala) V G Somasekhar agrees that more and more fishermen will subscribe to cellular phone services in the coming years.

Both cellular service companies have been scrambling to snare this catch. So both have been regularly organising special camps to train fishermen to send SMS and create awareness of the advantages of cellphone services.

They have even appointed separate direct selling agents (DSAs) and marketing executives to cater to the fishing community and have introduced specials schemes exclusively for fishermen. They have also been vigorously expanding their coverage in the coastal belt by investing in new cell sites.

Says Somasekhar: "A lot of our coverage is designed to reach coastal harbours like Shaktikulangara, Aroor in Ernakulam, Chavakaad and Ponnani in Thrissur, Beypore in Kozhikode and Mahe near Kannur."

Saleem says that BPL Mobile is working with handset makers Nokia and Motorola to upgrade technology so that the coverage of the sea can be doubled.

"We hope to achieve that beginning next month," he adds.

Still, what's clear is that fishermen use mobile phones largely for work.

Mobile service providers' revenues jump during the peak fishing season but crash during the off-season, once the monsoon and the 45-60 day ban on trawling come into force.