This blog will be taking a two-week vacation. I will, however, be spending part of it reading economics books and writing a chunk of my next one. Please come back in mid-August!

Mobile Communication by Rich Ling and Jonathan Donner was a bit of a disappointment to me. I always pounce on titles about the mobile industry, having spent five years now steering Vodafone's research programme into the social and economic impact of mobiles in developing economies (four of the reports available in Vodafone's public policy series – Africa, healthcare, mobile transactions and India). For such a transforative technology, there are surprisingly few books about it. Even the academic literature, though blossoming now, was sparse for years.

The co-authors of this book have written some terrific papers and reports themselves over the years, and are amongst the foremost experts on the impacts of mobile. However, this book covers old territory, not new. I suppose it's aimed at undergraduate courses. It's a brief canter through some of the main issues, descriptive rather than analytical. And this is no doubt my failing not theirs, but I hated the way they present points through 'vignettes' about real or invented people. Twee or what?

The text does refer to a couple of the papers done as part of the research programme funded by Vodafone, but to my mind ignores some interesting ones which would have supplemented points they make  – including the work on mobile transactions. Access to finance is so fundamental to livelihoods and economic development, and if there is to be mass access in poor countries it will be via mobile. (Also, I do think experts on the mobile industry should spell company names correctly… it's Vodafone with an 'f'.)

Having been so negative, this is nevertheless a solid introduction to the growth and social impacts of mobile (it doesn't touch on the economics much at all), suitable for students. There is a decent bibliography too. I didn't dislike the book but was underwhelmed. The authors are excellent people and I suppose they delivered what was commissioned. But for real interest, go direct to their papers, all widely accessible online, rather than this book. Here is Jonathan Donner's website, great stuff here.