Mobile in Developing Countries:

Top Ten Impact Areas and Opportunities

Dr. Madanmohan Rao

Editor: “Asia Unplugged,”

“AfricaDotEdu”

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

The “8 Cs” of Wireless Ecosystems

Connectivity

Content

Community

Culture

Capacity

Cooperation

Commerce

Capital

Dimensions of the Wireless Ecosystem

Wireless as Instrument

– Providing affordable access to ICTs, local language

content/tools, sectoral benefits (news, education,

healthcare, environment, business, government)

Wireless as an Industry

– Boosting digital content industries, venture capital,

stockmarkets, technical skills, regulation, global

alliances

Classification of Wireless Information Societies

Restrictive eg. Myanmar

Embryonic eg. Afghanistan

Emerging eg. Nepal

Negotiating eg. China

Intermediate eg. India

Mature eg. Australia

Advanced eg. Japan, South Korea

“Companies come to India for the cost, they stay

for the quality and they invest for the innovation .”

Dan Scheinman

VP, Cisco

…when the earthquake happened, a mother was

embracing her infant. later the people found out this

infant (it is still sleeping quietly and well), and saw a

mobile in its clothes, but its mother has been dead, she

wrote a short message that was not sent ,"dear baby, if

you are lucky, can live, please remember mother love

you." .......

(excerpt I received via email from a friend in Shanghai)

New Media and Developing Countries:

Top Ten Impact Areas

Disaster reporting and relief

Human rights, freedom of expression

Healthcare (epidemics/pandemics)

Poverty alleviation

Improving education, environment

Social inclusion, access to capital

Connecting diaspora

Cultural preservation

Government transparency, accountability

Enhancing private sector, SMEs, informal labour

Disaster Reporting and Relief

Mobile alerting systems (eg. SMS warnings)

Citizen reporting and collaboration

RFID tagging on relief shipments

Mesh, WiMax “in a box”

Examples

– Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

– Earthquake in China

– Terrorist attacks in India

– AIDS/HIV in Africa

Mobile and ICT4D in Asia

Japan: reduce the digital divide (eg. for disabled citizens)

China: government concern - use of SMS/blogs for spreading rumours and political messages

India: connecting startups with social entrepreneurs

Philippines: m-payments (remittances)

Nepal: communicating across mountainous regions

Bangladesh - Grameen Telephone: shared access + microfinance (village “phone ladies”)

“The phone has transformed the women farmers'

lives completely - they are able to market their

produce, access information on prices, and it

has made them so confident.”

Gladys Faku

Participatory Ecological Land Use Management

Mobile Activism in Developing Countries

NGO Breakthrough in Bangalore has SMS HIV/AIDS helpline for answering queries; also domestic violence

IKSL.in offers agri "voice SMS" messages and helpline to Indian farmers in local languages

Suruk.com offers SMS-based info/rating services for autorickshaw (tuktuk) drivers

Informal labour: GreenMango, BabaJobs, CellBazaar

Greenpeace: SMS to raise funds (India), monitor forest destruction (Argentina), send climate alerts (Australia)

Startups: Networks, Innovation, Awards

MobileMonday!

India: NASSCOM Foundation, MSSRF

Frost & Sullivan: African Excellence Awards

South African Innovation Fund

Opportunities: Startups, Services

Hardware: chips, tags, multiprotocol readers (eg. Intermec, ThinkMagic)

Content/service (eg. Yulop)

Integration (eg. OATsystems)

Offshoring (eg. TCS, Infosys/OnMobile – India)

Support services (eg. certification)

Investors: VC, corporate (eg. UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund: Savi, Impinj)

Mobile in Developing Countries:

Issues for Entrepreneurs

Industry lifecycles: size, growth; rural areas

Getting/publishing case studies and research

Top-down v/s disruptive

RoI, metrics

Localising, globalising

Alliance strategies

Dealing with the “big guys” (Reuters Market Light, Nokia Life Tools, Microsoft OneApp; operators)

Exit strategies

Your Strategy for Developing Countries:

Recommendations

„Segmenting‟ the market

– high end, mass market, bottom of the pyramid

Partnering with developing countries

– R&D, offshore support, in-sourcing, innovation

Learning about mobile in developing countries

– local partners: MoMo!

Year 2030: Outlook

Spectrum issues

e-Waste��

Theoretical frameworks for mobile media

Innovation: “micro-multinationals”

Personal knowledge management

Visioning/scenario strategies

– eg. 20 Year Stepping: 1950, 1970, 1990, 2010, 2030, 2050

“Silver” technologies and applications

Emerging economies: markets, partners, competitors

Tweets: http://twitter.com/MadanRao

madan@techsparks.com

digitalnomad@hotmail.com