Discovered: a mobile-phone free Asian capital city. (Lynch).

Wireless Asia, January, 2002 by Lynch, Grahame

Early in January I sat in an open-air restaurant in the central town square of an Asian capital city for about two hours--and only once did I hear the shrill ring of a mobile phone.

The city was Laos' Vientiane. And the experience was a reminder that Asia's cellular revolution is neither ubiquitous nor comprehensive.

For those of us who live in busy Asian cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore it's easy to imagine that the all-pervasive use of mobile phones is a universal phenomenon.

So it was refreshing to spend three days in a country's capital city and only see a mobile phone in use on two occasions.

Lao Telecom, like its country's economy, is no powerhouse. Teledensity dwetls in the 1% zone--hardly surprising...

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