Our phones and human rights

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

My relationship with the world of telephony technology has changed forever.

Until last week I was the proud owner of a nine-year-old iPhone 3. Any time millennials saw it they would express astonishment, that is, after they finished howling with laughter. They could not believe that such an old phone was still in use.

A kind friend gave me a gift of an iPhone 8. I was told that it was a ‘multi-generational’ jump.

Naïvely, I thought it was a matter of simply inserting the old SIM card into the iPhone 8. The new SIM card was much smaller. But that change was easy-peasy. It took approximately two hours to change from one phone to the other, to transfer all the data from the old iPhone 3 to the new iPhone 8.

All done by a super smart millennial. While he was doing it I pretended I knew much more than I actually did. Every now and again I would utter words such as connectivity, 4G, iCloud and Bluetooth. All my data from the old phone had been save on to the iCloud. I have no idea how that happened.

After two hours of hard work everything was working on the new phone except I could not make phone calls on it. Isn’t that somewhat odd, as it is, after all, a phone. 

My installer-friend phoned Vodafone, my provider but he was told it was not possible via a phone call to activate fully the new SIM card. Next day I managed to do what he could not manage. 

That made me feel good.

The phone is now up and running, in full working order.

But another problem; new phone is 4G technology, the old phone is 3G. Where I live there is poor reception. I have a mechanism in my house that boosts the Vodafone signal. Alas, the booster is only compatible with 3G telephony.

I phoned Vodafone. On the first attempt I’m told they don’t have a booster for 4G phones. Call again next day with more questions but also throw in the 3G/4G problem. Great news. I’m informed the new phone can also be operated using 3G technology.

When you phone Vodafone and there is no representative available, an automatic recording asks you to give a time you would like a call back. And it works. Sounds a good idea to me.

Calls to Vodafone from Ireland are routed to a call centre in Egypt. The Vodafone team, all Egyptians, speak perfect English although some of them have never lived in an English speaking country. They must have a top-class education system.

On a more serious note. What about the ethics of Vodafone having a call centre in Egypt? The Egyptian authorities are not at the top of the class when it comes to treating all its citizens with respect and dignity.

Some human rights groups estimate that up to 40,000 political prisoners have been detained in the country.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government has been accused of human rights violations.

My new Apple phone is the latest word in technology but what price are we paying for our luxuries?

It was assembled in China and I am thinking of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who won the prize for his writings promoting democracy. He died at 61 in 2017 having spent many years in prison. His ‘crime’ was his life-long and non-violent struggle for human rights in China.

Really, for how long and how far can we ride the tiger?