Nokia research on street charging services in Uganda
Uganda is a country coping with a severe energy crisis resulting in frequent power cuts. In addition, access to mains electricity in rural locations is limited. Given that mobile phones require power, and access to power can be unpredictable – how do people keep their mobile phones and other electrical devices charged? How does people’s behaviour change when there is intermittent or limited access to power? How can we better support users with limited and intermittent access to power?

Jan Chipchase and Indri Tulusan of Nokia Research set out to explore this topic during a July 2006 field study in Uganda as part of a more in-depth study into shared phone use.



It can take 3 to 5+ days to have a car battery recharged at the process involves delivering the car-battery to a charging service often tens of kilometers away the nearest town that has mains electricity access. The battery is taken and returned by a trusted and friendly taxi driver or trader. It takes 3 days to charge a battery, longer if the town where the service is based itself experiences power cuts. The cost of charging a battery is around 1,000 Ugandan shillings (0.4 Euro), not including delivery. (As a comparison a mobile phone battery costs half as much to be recharged using one of the mobile phone street charging services mentioned above).

Two short presentations co-authored by Jan Chipchase and Indri Tulusan are available for download from
- Power Up: Street Charging Service in KampalaPowerPoint or PDF (3 mb)

- Rural Charging Service, UgandaPowerPoint or PDF (2 mb)