A 3G (phone) army?

Nowadays, its not an easy task to communicate through a handset of our times. there's more than one way to communicate with 3G, this means more information is being passed to and fro at one time and long messages get dismissed or ignored. There is a tendency for attention span to shorten, an example is if a user receives a lengthy message via an application on their phone and he/she is busy with something then the next step would be to simply "acknowledge" it. Now, how often do we reply a short "okay" or "noted" to an instruction by a friend or superior and then carried on with whatever we were doing with a the-rest-can-be-read-later repose. When I was on the train going to back to base the other night, one glance over the isles and at least a handful of commuters had their handsets in front of them. Some watching dramas; some reading and some playing virtual games on their touch-screens. If you can be engrossed enough to have missed a train stop before, would an interrupting message pop-up on your screen be treated with the same kind of late reaction?

With such changing needs, even MINDEF has allowed the usage of some camera-removed phones in their camps around Singapore. These phones however, have to be MINDEF-approved, that means the phone together with a certificate has to be acquired from a local telco that comes with the phone and a sticker will be issued to be stuck on the phone to certify it. After all these steps are done, only then can you use it in camp. But as of 1st September 2012, MINDEF has allowed the usage of camera phones but only within certain areas in camps. These are called green zones, and red zones are prohibited for such usage.

I rejoiced upon hearing this piece of news, but then it slowly comes to realization: What are the choices of such phones commercially available in the market? And with these restrictions surfaces the inconvenience of using a camera phone thats allowed ONLY in a green-zone bound.

I will add that because the needs of mass communication today is much more complex, we communicate differently through different apps on our phones that serve different functions. Whether you are in the workforce or not, 3G technology and the simple handset is now a growing entity in our society.

Since MINDEF has announced the usage of camera phones in some of its military camps for the convenience of national servicemen and the proliferation of smartphones, do you think this was a neccessary step? More importantly, in what ways would it compromise national security?

(the bookout crew will ponder upon this and get back to you asap)
cheers! :))