Last night a few old friends of mine came over. They don’t have any IT background and still see mobile internet as something suspicious. Before too long, our conversation turned to the economy. Someone mentioned seeing a homeless person charging an iPhone 3G out in the cold, using an exposed power plug outside a convenience store. This was received with a mix of surprise and outrage. iPhones and mobile data are expensive, aren’t they? How (and why?) does a homeless person afford the very latest of the luxurious Apple experiences?

You, my reader, are probably quite mobile-savvy, so I won’t bother re-starting the argument of how great it is to have an all-in-one 3G mobile terminal. The mobile internet is becoming an economically superior use case in North America, as opposed to being a vision shared by technologists. For the homeless man, this is a killer deal - his life should get a lot easier. He now knows the weather forecast, tracks good deals (and jobs) on Craigslist, feels like a part of the community by being able to follow any event of interest. Here in Vancouver we have a serious homelessness issue and a recent community project by Fearless City looked into giving second-hand mobiles to some of the street dwellers. Assuming the service for the donated mobiles is affordable, this could make a real difference. A fair pricing point for 3G service and a bundled device is the best all-around stimulus - and we’re finally seeing that in Canada.

@eighthree commented: “how about affording a place to live in / food ?”. While obviously basic human needs are what has to be fulfilled first, there comes a point when one has to pick the tools for their trade. Being homeless does not imply having no income whatsoever. It seems that mobile internet devices are going to make a lot of difference for everybody, not just us techies. Unless @jimpick sucks up all the 3G bandwidth =)