Second-Order Network Development in India: Mobile Phone Users and the Indian Premier League Colin Agur Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Colin Agur All rights reserved Second-Order Network Development in India: Mobile Phone Users and the Indian Premier League Colin Agur Abstract This dissertation examines second order network formation on Indiaʼs large and rapidly expanding mobile phone networks. It does so by examining a particular second order network – the Indian Premier League (IPL) mobile network. Using a case study approach and a mix of ethnographic methods and textual analysis, I explore the history that preceded the IPL mobile network, the intentions of its creators, the processes by which users participate on the network, and the outcomes of network expansion and evolution. I deploy the space of flows concept of Manuel Castells, to draw attention to continuity and change in Indian communication networks, and to highlight the new spatial dynamics at work in mass mobile telephony. This dissertation emphasizes the transformative nature of second order networks and identifies the ways that masses of users can disrupt and alter communication networks, especially in contexts of informal economics and power structures. Keywords: India; network theory; globalization; ethnography; sports and media Table of Contents List of Charts, Graphs, and Illustrations!! ! ! Page ii Chapter 1: Introduction!! ! ! ! ! Page 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review!! ! ! ! Page 14 Chapter 3: Theory and Methodology!! ! ! Page 42 Chapter 4: History of Communication Networks in India! Page 69 Case Study Introduction!! ! ! ! ! Page 142 Chapter 5: Case Study Part I (Intentions)!!!Page 147 Chapter 6: Case Study Part II (Processes)!! ! Page 172 Chapter 7: Case Study Part III (Outcomes)!! ! Page 210 Conclusion!! ! ! ! ! ! ! Page 245 Appendix: Key Terms!! ! ! ! ! Page 260 Bibliography!! ! ! ! ! ! ! Page 266 i List of Charts, Graphs, and Illustrations Figure 4.1! Telephone Adoption in India!! ! ! ! Page 120 Figure 5.1! An App for Every Phone Type!! ! ! ! Page 151 Figure 5.2! Mobile Inclusivity!! ! ! ! ! ! Page 151 Figure 5.3! IPL Social Media Presence!! ! ! ! ! Page 152 Figure 5.4! IPL Team Ownership!! ! ! ! ! Page 163 Figure 6.1! Mobile Phone Trivia and Polls at Matches!! ! Page 176 Figure 6.2! Survey Questions on IPL-Related Mobile Phone Usage! Page 187 Figure 6.3! Survey Questions on General Mobile Phone Usage!! Page 189 Figure 6.4! Survey Questions on Users" Economics of Mobile !! Page 193 !!Phone Usage Figure 6.5! Growth of IPL Likes (Facebook) and Followers (Twitter) ! Page 199 !!During the Playing Season Figure 6.6! Social Media as Broadcast!! ! ! ! ! Page 200 Figure 6.7! Social Buzz!! ! ! ! ! ! ! Page 201 Figure 6.8! ESPNCricinfo Match Companion!! ! ! ! Page 203 Figure 7.1! Cricket as a Structured Game!! ! ! ! Page 215 Figure 7.2! Coding Bets in Text Messages!! ! ! ! Page 220 Figure 7.3! Soft-Betting or #Fantasy" Platforms!! ! ! Page 222 Figure 7.4! Monitoring Odds in Real-Time!! ! ! ! Page 228 ii Acknowledgements I am indebted to several individuals who helped me throughout the dissertation process: Thanks to Richard R. John for his tremendous support and encouragement as my dissertation advisor. Thanks to the members of my committee (Todd Gitlin, James Katz, Michael Schudson, and Ramesh Subramanian) for their mentorship during my research and writing. Thanks to Valerie Belair-Gagnon for her critical eye as a reader of draft chapters. And thanks to Jonathan Ezer for inspiring this dissertation. I also owe a debt of gratitude to two intellectual communities: At Columbia's PhD program in Commmunications, I benefited not only from its faculty, but also from the camaraderie and mentorship offered by fellow students. And as a Visiting Fellow at Yale's Information Society Project, I had a chance to explore the relationship between law and technology, learning from legal scholars and social scientists interested in communications research. iii Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my parents: Scott and Bev Agur. iv ! Chapter 1 Mobile Networks in India and the Indian Premier League Introduction ! On April 3, 2013, I walked into Kolkata"s Eden Gardens, made my way through teeming crowds of purple-clad fans, found my seat, and waited for the start of play. This was the opening match of the sixth season of the Indian Premier League, a big-money cricket league that draws the world"s top players to India for seven weeks of fast-paced two-hour matches. As the stadium"s video screens and the IPL mobile app counted down the minutes and seconds until the start of play, the crowd buzzed with excitement. ! Finally the moment arrived. Brett Lee, a spiky-haired fast bowler for the Kolkata Knight Riders, took the ball and began his run toward the opening batsman, Unmukt Chand of the Delhi Daredevils. Lee"s delivery bounced once, at perfect length, cut away from the flailing Chand, and sent his off-stump cartwheeling backwards. The umpire raised his right index finger and 90 000 fans roared their approval. The home team had taken a wicket on the first ball of the match.1 ! All around me, fans turned their attention to their phones. I asked a pair of men in their early 20s what was so interesting. Were they live-Tweeting the action? Were they uploading videos to Facebook? “No,” one said. “We"re betting on the match.” The other added: “With that wicket, the odds have changed.” They chatted excitedly in Bengali and continued tapping on their phones. ! So began my fieldwork researching mobile phone usage in the context of the Indian Premier League. I had chosen the IPL as a case study because it had made such 1 a conspicuous display of communication technology in its branding, and because it is a useful context to study the dramatic expansion of Indiaʼs mobile phone networks. I came to India with a set of questions about hardware, mobile apps, social media, and mobile culture. In the matches and months to follow, I came away with a set of answers that surprised me. What I observed studying the IPL mobile network challenged my initial assumptions, pushed back on much of the literature on mass mobile phone adoption in India and developing countries, and deflated the techno-optimism of the IPL. I came to study spectacles and ended up learning about the dark side of networks. Background " In less than 20 years, India has experienced a dramatic transformation in telephone policy and usage. In the early 1990s, India had one of the lowest tele-density 2 rates in the world, a small and weak telephone sector, and a set of regulations derived from 19th century legislation intended to administer the country!s telegraph networks. In 2014, India has more than 900 million mobile subscribers, several indigenous telecom champions including one (Bharti Airtel) of the world!s giants, and a sophisticated regulatory regime that has kept mobile costs low for consumers and encouraged universal mobile connectivity. India now has the infrastructure and critical mass of users necessary for second order networks. By #second order networks! I refer to social networks of users that have grown on top of the physical network of infrastructure that now connects most of India. Via a physical network of towers, switches, cables, and phones, users now enjoy a range of services in health, education, banking, and other commercial services. These services depend not only on the material features of 2 networks, but also on the contributions of users, who have found ways to expand the options available to themselves and other users. Over time, these social add-ons become second order networks, with an architecture of hubs, nodes, and linkages. Importantly, second order networks are user-generated phenomena that develop irrespective of the intentions and interests of those who built the original network. After two decades of expansion of Indiaʼs infrastructure and hardware, second order networks are blossoming, often in ways that policymakers did not predict during the liberalization of the 1990s. " With these changes, the telephone has gained a new identity in India. For decades after independence, the Indian government treated telephones as luxury items for a small subset of Indians, typically political and business elites. The government did not prioritize network expansion, and it proved more successful at keeping out good foreign-made technology than in developing high-quality indigenous telephone hardware. Today, the Indian government treats telephony as an essential component in development (TRAI, 2012a and 2012b). From an ideational standpoint, the telephone is about more than connectivity; it is about India!s social and economic development, and its ability to compete internationally. Indeed, the mission statement of the Telecom Regulatory Agency of India (TRAI) aspires to: ...create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in the country in a manner and at a pace which will enable India to play a leading role in the emerging global information society (TRAI, 2012a). This aspiration reveals the continued importance of the state in a globalized world. The technology and satellites linking networks may not recognize borders, but the political 3 economy of telecom remains in many respects a statist project. From the policies that unleashed competition, to the construction of physical infrastructure, to the initiatives designed to bring telephony to disadvantaged groups and to remote corners of the country, the Indian state has played an indispensable role. Beyond its statist impulses, the TRAI mission statement also reveals the importance of telephony in the global political economy emerging in the early decades of the 21st century. Today, the mobile telephone is a symbol of a new global connectivity; it is also a symbol – perhaps the most important symbol – of the ʻnew Indiaʼ: a confident, competitive, technologically savvy, and successful commercial player.