As the COVID-19continues to affect many parts of the world, several countries have moved to adopt apps that detect the virus. Tech giants such as Google and Apple are collaborating on apps based on Bluetooth technology, while in India, the “Aarogya Setu” app has gained widespread recognition.
And now the Indianseems to be planning to create a COVID-19 tracing app that will target 2G devices. This decision by the Indian government has to do with the fact that a huge number of its population uses such devices, which actually exceeds the number of smartphones in use in the country.
The Aarogya Setu app uses Bluetooth to detect other devices that are in close proximity. However, according to Navkendar Singh, research director at IDC India, "the majority of mobile phones (in the country) do not have data capabilities and most do not have Bluetooth or GPS technology."
Creating a tracking app for these basic phones is a big challenge, as most of them don't have GPS and even if they do, it's almost impossible for someone to install an app on them.
The only option app developers have in this case is to perform location tracking at the network level, i.e. on 2G and 3G networks. But again, the data collected may not be very accurate.
Some states in India are said to have tried network-level detection, but its effectiveness is not known.
India's IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said that creating a contact tracing app for basic phones is feasible and that the project is under development.
If India's efforts to create a contact tracing app for basic mobile phones work, it will be a major achievement for the entire world, since more than a quarter of mobile phones on the planet, about 1.5 billion in total, do not have Bluetooth functionality.
Such phones are mainly found in countries that do not have a strong health system, therefore, they are likely to benefit more from such an application.
