I was born and raised in Kenya at a time when land-line phones were the preserve of the rich, corporations, and other institutions. Currently, almost all the families I know (here family means extended family) have at least one cellphone. So yes, poor people can afford cellphones. What is now needed are better ways to make them productive. Most of the people I know use them for social purposes, but some business people use them to order supplies, inquire about prices, and even get market prices sent to their phnes by text. This cuts down on time to travel to market and inquire price, and also give new leads on the best market to sell produce. New innovations are making them useful for other reasons as well. Case in point: M-Pesa, a money transfer service using cell phones. Of course cell phones can't end poverty by themselves. But they may be key.