How is a Feature Phone User Going to get the COVID-19 Vaccine?

India is going through a very damaging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the younger population of the country, claiming thousands of lives every day, while lakhs of people test positive daily. The mortality and positivity numbers are setting new records on a daily basis. However, the country is past the worst as the vaccination drive kicks on to the younger majority.

There are multiple ways to register for vaccination, all of them via web portals or apps.

However, there are at least 300 million people in India who still use 2G. Most of them use a feature phone, and therein lies the dilemma - how are we going to vaccinate this bracket of people, which is a fourth of India's population?

The Feature Phones Situation in India

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, in Q4 2020, India was the largest feature phone market in the world. 38% of all feature phones found their way to the country during that time. Samsung, iTel and HMD Global were the largest vendors, with a total 57% market share. A back-of-the-envelope calculation gives 30.4 million phones to India, out of a total 80 million shipped.

Projections estimate around 397 million feature phones shipping in India, making it the largest market in the world for dumb phones. There is a key reason for this trend, and that is affordability. With smartphones proliferating as quickly as they are, the bottom rung of the population still can't afford one.

Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint Research, said, “there are more than three billion people across the world who live on an income of less than US$2.50/day. This segment can neither afford a smartphone nor the data services demanded by the growing advancement in smartphone use-cases. Thus, a feature phone, coupled with basic mobile services has been the go-to offering for these users to communicate and connect. Most of these users are prevalent across Africa, parts of Asia and Latin America”.

India is one such market, and till the time smartphones become affordable, expect the feature phones to keep going.

How to Register for the COVID-19 Vaccine?

(At this point it is a rather redundant exercise to describe this, but I am doing it for the sake of argument).

There are multiple (equally frustrating) ways to register oneself for vaccination. First, there is the Co-WIN app and web portal. You can find a step by step guide here. When the vaccination drive opened for everyone between the ages of 18 and 44, both the app and web portal faces issues, but now it is working at least. However, vaccination slots are still hard to come by, if any. And if any come up, they are gone in the matter of seconds.

Then there are the local apps, developed by the state governments. For example, Punjab Government has COVA app, Covid-19 West Bengal, for West Bengal (of course), Quarantine Watch and Corona Watch in Karnataka and so on. There are around 20 apps floating around, and people of those states can find resources, including vaccine registration. However, integration issues persist, as most of the time the state app's data does not reflect on the national portal.

This is a personal story, but here goes. I got vaccinated in a local vaccination drive in my hometown in Punjab. I was registered on both COVA and Co-WIN. Yet so far, I have been unable to find any proof apart from the SMS I received.

Anyway, there is a fundamental problem - all these methods require a smartphone, or at the very least, internet. How is a feature phone user supposed to book themselves a slot?

How are Feature Phone Users Going to Get Vaccinated?

There seems to be a lapse in judgement during the creation of the whole process. No one seems to have thought about some 300-odd million people without internet access.

There are always walk-ins for sure, but when do they start? Walk-ins were organized for the people over the age of 45, but that age bracket represents a minority of India's population.

In the 18-44 age bracket, India has 600 million people. To put that number in perspective, here are some stats. First, the US' entire population stands at 328 million. Also, the entirety of Europe is home to 750 million people - I'm talking about a continent with three times as much area as India.

In an interaction with Times of India, Dr. RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority and ex-TRAI Chairman, talked about India's digital divide. He talked about Spice Money Adhikari network, who usually help rural residents with money deposits and such. These organizations are now helping the rural users find vaccination slots on the Co-WIN portal as well. He also mentioned that the system will add new features such as booking over call, and also will make use of Common Service Centers to further help people book vaccination slots.

When contacted by Voice&Data, Dr. Sharma declined to make any further comments on the matter.

Possible Solutions

So, walk-ins are going to be problematic, even though they are the obvious choice for all people on a feature phone. However, it will result in overcrowding, and that is the last thing that should be at a vaccination center. Walk-ins for such a large population could lead to virus spreading faster, defeating the whole purpose of a vaccination drive in the first place. Not only that, it can cause several other socio-political issues. Walk-ins are the cheapest bet, but it is far from the safest.

The government can open up the facility at the Common Service Centers as well, just like Dr. Sharma suggested. The risk of crowding is similar to that of walk-ins, however. The only saving grace is that at least at the vaccination centers there would be no such crowding.

Another option could be to register people who have not done so, by going door-to-door after figuring out who is left. This data is limited to people who have some sort of government ID, such as AADHAR Card. But I doubt there's anyone over the age of 18 who does not at least have that. This can pose multiple challenges of its own, similar to the fiascos we saw during last year's lockdown. I am talking about the ones where teams of doctors were attacked by the public for trying to test them for COVID-19. This method has its own risks, but it is still less riskier than having people line up in the hundreds.

Also, there are many volunteer organizations that are helping people find vaccination slots on the Co-Win portal. These people include the people with feature phones, and people with a lack of access to the internet. The authorities need to back these organizations.

A Wake Up Call for the Industry and the Authorities

From the telecom industry's perspective, having a third of the subscriber base still rely on 2G is a cause of concern. Smart feature phones are making headways into bringing this segment to 4G, however, there is not enough proliferation at that end either.

Only Reliance Jio has brought out anything significant for this part of the country - JioPhone is still a revolutionary piece of hardware. Taking its example, Orange, a French telco, is also bringing out a smart feature phone for as cheap as $20 in some regions of Africa. There needs to be more competition in this segment, as smart feature phones could turn into a $28 billion opportunity, as per Counterpoint Research.

While 5G is getting closer to becoming a reality in India these days, it is essential to look at the other end of the spectrum as well. In the midst of the situation, the pandemic has brought new challenges and has dragged the digital divide in India out for the world to see. There are millions who are still stuck in the 2G era, and almost three-quarters of India still does not have basic internet access.

Everything boils down to a simple question of access. If a person has access to the internet, they can get vaccinated easily. The ones who don't, have to either wait for someone to do it for them, or line up either at the vaccination centers or the CSCs. Either way, the situation is far from ideal and should wake everyone who has gotten complacent due to having access.

There is still a wide gap between the haves and have-nots of India, in terms of connectivity and access. The how and the when of bridging this gap will decide how fast India can become truly digital.