MARKETPLACE: "Cellphone Entertainment Takes Off in Rural India: As Average Spending on Calls Declines, Providers Push Music, Sports Services to Boost Revenue," by Eric Bellman, Wall Street Journal, 23 November 2009.

Cellphone companies in rural India pushing music, news, entertainment, data and even "worship" through their units. Why? Can't wait on the infrastructure to tap into those 750,000 isolated villages (as in, not even any FM), so radio pushed through the cells, with live broadcasts of religious ceremonies and cricket matches being big draws. Another big reason for the push: the market is so competitive on calls that average monthly revenue declining, so companies push non-voice services to boost profit. Sounds like a win-win for the consumer: prices dropping or flat and new services proliferating. As always, it is the sheer connection that makes people so happy:

In the town of Behror in the state of Rajasthan, there is no regular radio music broadcast, so 60-year-old farmer and music lover Balwant Singh Yadav says dialing up his favorite music has been a "lifeline." "I used to walk 10 to 15 kilometers just to listen to Hindi songs being played at marriage paries and other local functions," he said. "With the cellphone, the latest hits come handy. I can tune in any time I'm free." He said he spends about $1.50 a month on the music service.

I remember living in radio-dead Boscobel WI as a kid, where all the local stations could give you pork belly prices and not much else and the only way to hear rock 'n roll was those nights when WLS from Chicago actually came through. We'd be so happy to go along on any family drive to Madison (anywhere but our radio-free valley) because we'd then get the Madison stations during the trip and be able to hear songs that we obsessed over but didn't have the money to buy (7 kids living on my dad's ability to do taxes and wills with local farmers). To hear a favorite song on the radio was pure heaven. So yeah, I get this guy.