Billing for your mobile and electronics shop in Arunachal Pradesh
A phone, a cover and a repair job on one bill, and a villager's part payment on one page.
From the phone sold today to the repair collected next week
The rare models that keep coming to the bench
A phone of a model that is rare in the town needs a part you never keep. Each time one comes to the bench, write the model on the part you order. After a few jobs the list shows which rare models keep coming back, and those are the parts to hold in the drawer before your next order.
Loading as an item at its charge, so the small coins are counted with the phones
Add loading as an item with its charge, and bill it in two taps. At the week's end the report shows how many loads were done and what they brought. The small coins stop vanishing into the box, and you can see if the work is worth the minutes it takes.
Which phone catches which village's signal, noted on the model's page
Add each phone model as its own item and keep your own notes in its name, such as the model and the village where it worked. The next customer from that village is shown what worked, and you stop answering from a guess.
Why a mobile counter sells a phone at one rate and a cable at another
Two brothers' phones in one bag, and the same cracked screen on both
Two brothers walk in together with a cracked phone each, of the same make. You mend one on the spot and take the other for the evening. By the time they come back, the slips for the two phones look the same, and nobody is sure which brother's phone is which. The one who walked down from the far side of the hill leaves with the wrong phone, and the mistake is found only when he reaches home and has no way back to the shop that day.
A memory card and a hundred songs loaded for a coin while the customer waits
Customers come in for songs and films loaded onto a memory card or a phone, for a coin or two. The work takes a few minutes each, and it is done while you serve someone else. Nothing is written, and the coins go into the same box as the sale of a phone.
A phone that took calls for years and must now carry data
In a border village the phones took calls for years but had no data until a new network came. Families now come to buy a first smartphone, ask which network works at their door, and want the old SIM kept. You tell them from what other customers have said, and nothing on the bill records which network held.
Tools for a counter of handsets, chargers, screens and repair jobs
Bills on your phone
A first phone, its glass and an hour of set-up help on one bill, sent to the new phone itself, and the family can read it at home.
Low stock warnings
A level for the glass and covers of the three models your village customers buy most, so the warning comes before the drawer is empty.
Daily reports
How many coin charges were done each day, kept, so you can see whether the service pays for the power it uses. Over a month it shows which days the service was busiest.
Models, repair jobs and GST bills: what mobile shop owners here ask
A son pays for his father's phone by UPI from the plains. How do I tie it to the bill?
Make the bill for the phone and write the UPI payment against it when it arrives. The father collects the phone against that bill, and the son's payment is on the same page.
A man from a village with no signal buys his first phone. What do I set up for him before he goes?
Do the set-up while he is at the counter: put his number in and show him the call key. Add your half hour as a line beside the phone, so the time is paid for.
A villager pays the third and last part of his phone. What does he leave with?
The last line of his page brings what he owes to nothing, and the bill with the phone's model and the day goes to his WhatsApp. He leaves with proof that the phone is his and paid, and he can show it to anyone who asks.
3,500 villages on 4G, 5G in Itanagar and Lumpo's data from 2023
In June 2025 Chief Minister Pema Khandu said over 3,500 villages in Arunachal have 4G mobile connectivity and that 5G services have been launched in Itanagar. A handset sold in Itanagar this year may be a 5G one, while a handset sold in a village this year may be the first that ever held a 4G bar. A shop in a town with 5G is asked about speeds and plans, while a shop in a village is asked whether the phone will work at all. The questions at the two counters are different, and so are the bills. In a village that has only just got 4G, a handset is also a first camera and a first wallet, and it is chosen with that in mind.
In Lumpo village near the Tawang border, residents had used BSNL phones for 10-12 years but data did not work until Airtel 4G started in 2023. A shop that sells a family its first data phone also teaches it the first message, the first photograph and the first payment, and the bill it hands over is often the first the family has kept.