MobileActive.org

In much literature on social capital, it has been a widely held assertion that networks of informal relations is beneficial for the development of local regions as well as larger nations (Fukuyama 1995; Putnam 2000; Woolcock 2001). Regional areas with a well developed network of informal connections and communities are believed to produce benefits leading to increased regional competitiveness, economic growth and prosperity. The last decade mobile communication tools have rapidly saturated several emerging markets in Asia and Africa (Donner 2008; Kumar and Thomas 2006). As a tool that is mainly used to connect individuals across space and time; mobile phones appears to have qualities that can spur social capital development for private persons as well as enterprises and larger regions. In line with this, some recent studies have found support the argument that mobile phones is beneficial for regional and local development (Goodman 2007; Jensen 2007). Still, others has been more reluctant and critical towards the “network effect” coming out of mobile phone usage among small enterprises (Chowdhury 2006) and some studies has found that private ties, rather than business relations are strengthened through the implementation of mobile phones (Donner 2004).
This paper addresses the question of mobile telephony usage and local development by looking at how mobile voice dialogues and SMS (text messages on mobile phones) are used by small enterprises in Malaysia. More explicitly, the study explores the kind of relations that are supported by these tools during the work day, as well as their physical proximity and perceived importance for business development. The study is based on in-depth studies of 12 small enterprises (between 5 and 20 employees) operating within agriculture, retail and financial services in the Selangor district. The paper presents initial findings, indicating differences in mobile phone usage between the three sectors, and highlighting general trends cutting across all sectors. Methodologically the study draws on quantitative social network techniques (to map mobile calls and SMS messages during a week), as well as qualitative interviews with managers and a sample of employees in the enterprises.

This paper describes strategies to lower the cost
of providing Automated Teller Machine microdeposit services
in rural contexts. Microdeposits represent a growing market
in the developing world, but the cost of running a
conventional ATM network is prohibitive due to the capital
investment required to deploy networks and terminals.
Our novel contributions are to use the Short Message
Service (SMS) over high-penetration GSM cellular networks
in conjunction with a system using location awareness to
intelligently distribute available balances among machines.
This allows us to provide high levels of service while
simultaneously reducing risk to the financial institution and
lowering per-transaction cost.
Using a simulation of ATM usage patterns and
distributions, our primary results under our model are: (1)
transaction cost per user per year can be optimized to less
than USD 0.18 given an SMS loss rate of approximately 10%
while (2) customer withdrawal success rate can be maintained
at approximately 98% with (3) a maximum of 5% of funds on
deposit available in cash in ATMs at any given time.
These results make wide deployment of rural ATM services
by financial institutions feasible and economically viable in
the near term using existing commodity tech

This paper offers a systematic review of 14 studies
of the use of mobile telephony by micro and small enterprises
(MSEs) in the developing world, detailing findings about changes
to enterprises’ internal processes and external relationships, and
findings about mobile use vs. traditional landline use. Results
suggest that there is currently more evidence for the benefits of
mobile use accruing mostly (but not exclusively) to existing MSEs
rather than new MSEs, in ways that amplify existing material
and informational flows rather than transform them. The review
presents a more complete picture of mobile use by MSEs than
was previously available to ICTD researchers, and identifies
priorities for future research, including comparisons of the
impact of mobile use across subsectors of MSEs and assessments
of use of advanced services such as mobile banking and mobile commerce.

This report provides professionals from across sectors and industries with methodologies for sizing up the market opportunity for mHealth solutions in the Global South. The report was prepared after thorough research for available data and identifies gaps where subject-matter experts' input is needed. Specific examples of data and the healthcare expenditures from Turkey, Vietnam, and South Africa are used to demonstrate the methodologies.

Developing credible market size requires approaches that maximize the use of imperfect data, including additional inputs from experts in the health field in the developing world. To move toward the development of a credible market sizing, this report identifies the available secondary data and provides three possible approaches for assessing market size: Top down from health budgets with needs-based segmentation, top down from health ICT or eHealth budgets, and bottom-up from healthcare program cost and volume of potential data. In addition to detailed step-by step explanations, the report also provides an evaluation of each of the methodologies and comments on the quality of their results.