MobileActive.org

In this article, we look at tools and systems for Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR allows callers to navigate an automated menu by pressing keys on their phone keypad, reaching either an extension ('press 1 for sales, press 2 for support'), a further menu, or audio content. Such content might be pre-recorded - for example, a weather report - or retrieved from a database and read out by an automated voice, which most mobile users will have encountered when calling in to request an airtime balance or bill amount. IVR systems can also be configured to allow people to record their own content.

There is growing pressure for farmers in countries such as Uganda to accelerate their efforts to commercialize production in the face of increasing market competition from neighboring countries and across the world. To assist farmers, a new generation of low cost market information services is being developed that takes advantage of information and communication technologies such as FM radios, mobile phones, and internet-based communications systems, to enable farmers to monitor and adjust to dynamic market conditions in local, national, and export markets.

Although there is much interest in market information from farmers, other market chain actors, and service providers, there is skepticism from funding agencies to support such services over the long term, due to past failures. This study therefore aims to evaluate how farmers access and use market information to improve their market decision making. It also evaluates whether there are any advantages of collective action in using market information to improve marketing decisions. This is considered an important point of analysis as virtually all extension plans in Uganda currently use farmer groups as key element of their learning and intervention strategies.

Survey results found that all farmers interviewed were able to access market information through radio and mobile phones. In Uganda, up to 94 percent of farmers interviewed owned a radio and 25 percent of farmers owned mobile phones. Up to 52 percent of farmers indicated that receiving Market Information Services (MIS) had a positive impact on their business, and 39 percent stated that it had a lot of impact in terms of decision making and stabilizing incomes.

Poor farmers often lack credit to purchase agricultural inputs, and rely on their buyers to provide it. This paper considers the effects of mobile phones on traders of perishable foodstuffs operating between Tanzania’s Southern Highlands and Dar es Salaam’s wholesale market, with a particular focus on the importance of credit in the relationship between potato and tomato farmers and their wholesale buyers.

It argues that the ability to communicate using these new information and communication technologies (ICTs) does not significantly alter the trust relationship between the two groups. It also suggests that farmers, in effect, often have to accept the price they are told their crops are sold for – irrespective of the method of communication used to convey this message – because their buyers are also their creditors. In this situation, many farmers are unable to exploit new mobile phone-based services to seek information on market prices, and potential buyers in other markets. Doing so runs the risk of breaking a long-term relationship with a buyer who is willing to supply credit because of their established business interaction.

It is suggested that, under a more open system than currently exists in Tanzania, mobile-payment (‘m-payment’) applications should target these creditor-buyers as key agents in connecting farmers to the credit they so often require.

This study analyses the cost of a low-volume basket of mobile services across a sample of Latin American countries, and contrasts these results with standard income and poverty indicators. The main goal is to establish how affordable mobile services are for the poor.

Three general findings emerge. First, the poor generally pay a cost premium for using prepaid subscriptions that allow better expenditure control, though in many cases this premium is much lower than expected.

Second, affordability is an important predictor of mobile penetration. Overall, while affordable handsets and the callingparty-pays system allow a significant number of low-income Latin Americans to become mobile subscribers, the results reveal that the current tariff structure has an inhibiting effect on service consumption by the poor.

Third, since affordability is the most significant barrier to extending the reach of mobile services, as well as the range of services used by the poor, priority should be placed on policies aimed at reducing tariffs and stimulating the introduction of commercial innovations for low-income groups.

Access to telephony for low-income groups is largely based on different strategies of mobile telephony usage. The main goal of this research project is to explore the strategies employed by the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean to access and use mobile telephony services, as well as to identify the major market and regulatory barriers for increased penetration and usage. More generally, it seeks to contribute to the discussion on how access to mobile telephony contributes to improving the livelihoods of the poor –what we call mobile opportunities.

Our results show that mobile telephony is highly valued by the poor as a tool for strengthening social ties and for increased personal security, and that it is beginning to prove useful for enhancing business and employment opportunities. Overall, the survey results suggest that the acquisition of mobile phones by the poor has an economic impact reflected mainly in improved social capital variables such as the strengthening of trust networks and better coordination of informal job markets. These findings reveal the continued need to develop innovative business models that extend the market frontier for mobile telephony. They also highlight the urgent need to rethink public policies that are premised on the mobile phone as a luxury good. Clearly, for the poor, mobile telephony has long been the most cost-effective and accessible alternative.

The Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (Sida) recently published a report that gives an overview of the current state of mobile phone applications for social and economic developments in East Africa. Drawing on successful adoption of mobile applications in the Philippines, this Sida report seeks to answer “what hinders the take off of m-applications for development in East Africa and what role donors play in the process.” While mobile phones is the one of the most widely accessible gateways for information in East Africa, with mobile penetration covering over 40% of the population, sustainable, scalable mobile services for social and economic development are limited. The report is supported by secondary data, statistics, and field work carried out in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, along with numerous interviews, meetings and discussions with key stakeholders in East Africa. Major trends in mobile usage, barriers for increased use of m-applications, as well as opportunities for scaling are discussed.

This study focuses on the affordability of the OECD’s low-usage basket of mobile telephony services, which includes 360 calls and 396 text messages (SMS) a year, segmented by duration, time of day and destination. In other words, the study compares the monthly cost of prepaid service for a user who makes approximately one call and sends one text message per day. Because our main interest lies in estimating the affordability of this basket of services for users at the bottom of the income pyramid, two indicators are used: (1) The proportion of income that the cost of this basket represents for users in the third income decile, which acts as a proxy for income at the bottom of the pyramid; (2) The affordability gap, which corresponds to the difference between the cost of the basket and 5 percent of the income of the potential users in each income decile.

The main findings are summarized. (1) There is significant dispersion of mobile telephony tariffs in the region, with costs of the low-usage basket ranging from US$45 in Brazil to US$2.20 in Jamaica (in current dollars). The average for the region is US$15. (2) For users who consume a minimum basket of mobile services, prepaid service is less expensive than post-paid service in 13 of the 20 markets in the sample. (3) Overall, mobile telephony tariffs in Latin America are significantly higher than those of OECD countries (2 times more) and other emerging markets (3 times more). (4) The only country in the region in which mobile telephone
services can be considered affordable for low-income users is Costa Rica. (5) Despite advances in the adoption of the service, the results of this report highlight a significant affordability gap that limits consumption of mobile telephony services for most people in the region, and point to a need for continued efforts and initiatives to reinforce competition in the market and review the heavy tax burden that affects mobile telephony service in the region.

The GMSA reports that the mobile subscriptions worldwide is at 3 billion (2008) with 270 million subscriptions in Africa at the end of 2007. This policy paper considers the challenges faced by public policy makers in understanding the true number of individuals with mobile access.  There are many reasons why customers might have more than one phone, phone number or SIM card, which results in the double-counting of customers. As a result, it is difficult to assume that the number telephone numbers or SIM cards translates into individual customers. The author discusses the issue of ambiguity in the estimates of mobile teledensity as an indicator for the MDGs and the subsequent challenge for public policy makers in interpreting the large numbers and how they reflect the reality of their countries, cities, towns and villages. Case studies in Bulgaria and South Africa are presented.

Across developing countries, millions of people rely on informal economic activity and local level networks to earn their living. Most of these populations are from bottom of pyramid and they don’t have access to basic financial services/banks as access to them is costly and very limited. However, the outstanding growth of mobile sector worldwide has created a unique opportunity to provide social and financial services over the mobile network. With over 4 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide, mobile network has the ability to immediately offer mobile banking to 61% of the world population. A study states the biggest share of mobile payment users will be in the Asia/Pacific region by 2012 (Gartner, 2008). In the context of being the most promising ICT market and the largest inbound remittance receiver, this region is expected to be the hub of m-banking transactions. 

The paper starts with an overview of existing models of m-banking and then examines the m-banking regulations in some South Asian countries and of the countries where (e.g. the Philippines, Kenya, South Africa) m-baking/payment systems are already in practice or a success. The concerns of financial regulators and policy measures taken so far are discussed.

The key questions this paper aims to answer:

⇒ What are the practiced models of m-banking/payment systems? 

⇒ What concerns are generally raised by financial regulators?  

⇒ Which m-banking/payment models have drafted or enacted in South Asia?  

⇒ Which m-banking/payment models have are enacted in the countries where it is a success?

⇒ What constitutes a proportionate regulatory approach?  

The answers to the above questions helps to identify a way forward which can expedite adoption of m-banking/ payments service in South Asia successfully and quickly.  

This review considers the differences between the adoption rates of M-PESA in Kenya and Tanzania and tries to highlight some of the reasons that the same service launched in seemingly similar countries has yielded such different results. This paper is intended as a discussion document for mobile network operators considering launching a mobile money service.

Safaricom launched M-PESA in Kenya in March 2007 and has since become the most famous and probably the most successful implementation of mobile money service to date. In May 2008, 14 months after the launch, M-PESA in Kenya had 2.7 million users and almost 3,000 agents. Today, over two years since its launch, M-PESA has gained 7 million registered customers and has 10,000 agents spread across the country. This exceeds the reach of any other financial service in Kenya.

Finaccess 2009 showed that M-PESA has become the most popular method of money transfer in Kenya with 40% of all adults using the service. The same Kenyan survey also shows a dramatic increase in national remittances; from 17% in 2006 to 52% in 2009, which may be attributed to the ease of money transfer through ubiquitous M-PESA agents. Many mobile network operators have been eager to repeat M-PESA’s success in Kenya, but the formula for this success is not yet clear. One year after the Kenyan launch, Vodacom launched M-PESA in April 2008 in Tanzania. The user uptake of the service in Tanzania has been much slower compared to its northern neighbour. In June 2009, 14 months after the launch, M-PESA in Tanzania had 280,000 users and 1,000 agents (Rasmussen 2009).

This report was commissioned by the GSMA and undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to examine the link between regulation and the digital divide. The emphasis has been on Sub-Saharan Africa because of the region’s relatively low level of penetration and significant, unfulfilled demand. Mobile has clearly emerged as the main solution to providing communications for the world’s unconnected. Mobile has already brought significant benefits to economies and societies across much of the developing world, but much potential still exists in Africa, where fixed-line communication alternatives are extremely limited.

This report investigates how a move towards best-practice regulation would promote an increase in mobile investment and help to realise this potential. Specifically, the analysis explores the impact of regulatory policy and government intervention on the level of risk associated with operator investment decisions. In light of this, we examine how reduced regulatory risk could improve investment levels and reduce the cost of mobile ownership. We then consider the impact this could have on penetration levels, and the corresponding knock-on effect for GDP.

This paper puts forward explanations and backgrounds to the remarkable difference in user uptake of the m-banking service M-PESA in Tanzania compared to the same service in Kenya. Data gathered from user and industry interviews, conducted during a field study in Tanzania between March-May 2009 is together with literature from Kenya used to compare the m-banking environment in the two countries.

M-PESA is provided by mobile network operators (MNOs), Safaricom in Kenya and Vodacom in Tanzania. Both are the leading MNO in their respective country although Vodacom has a substantially lower market share and turnover compared to Safaricom. This simple fact resonates in many areas affecting M-PESA, such as: size of marketing budget, M-PESA's priority within the organization and the company's ability to quickly sign up agents and attract initial customers. Differences in the general economic situation, the geography and political history are also put forward. Kenya has a stronger economy, a higher GDP and a more developed banking system. This has contributed to the financial literacy in the country which is an important factor when communicating a service like M-PESA.

Among the differences between the two implementations, we suggest that the three most influential factors to the user uptake have been the two companies ability to transform their airtime distribution into an agent network, the marketing strategy which needed to be adopted to the specific settings in each country, and the geographical and demographic conditions.