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The Mobile Observatory series includes reports on the large and mature European market, the extensive and dynamically evolving market of the Asia-Pacific region and the fast growing Latin-American region. This is the first African edition in the GSMA Mobile Observatory series. This Observatory provides a comprehensive review of the African mobile communications industry. Included are the latest statistics and market developments, as a reference point for mobile industry participants, policy makers and other interested stakeholders. It covers the state of the industry, including the evolution of competition, innovation in new products, services and technologies and the industry’s contribution to social and economic development in Africa. The report integrates data from a wide range of existing sources to provide a comprehensive picture of the African mobile industry. These include public sources such as the ITU, World Bank and research by National Regulatory Authorities as well as commercial providers such as Wireless Intelligence, Informa, Gartner, Buddecomm and IDC.

The mobile industry in Africa is booming. With over 620 million mobile connections as of September 2011, Africa has overtaken Latin America to become the second largest mobile market in the world, after Asia. Over the past 10 years, the number of mobile connections in Africa has grown an average of 30% per year and is forecast to reach 735 million by the end of 2012. 3 Fierce competition has driven down prices and increased penetration. Price wars have been common across the continent as operators compete for market share with innovative revenue and pricing options - operators have reduced prices an average of 18% between 2010 and 2011, 4 making mobile connectivity more broadly affordable to the masses. 96% of subscriptions are pre-paid with voice services currently dominating, however the uptake of data services is increasing rapidly. For example in Kenya data revenues, including SMS, have increased at a remarkable 67% CAGR over the last 4 years and now represent 26% of total revenues.

For the mobile industry to continue to serve as a catalyst for growth, sufficient spectrum is needed for the provision of mobile broadband services. African countries have currently allocated considerably less spectrum to mobile services than developing countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Allocating the Digital Dividend spectrum to mobile services will enable the mobile industry to accelerate its efforts to bring connectivity and information to large swathes of rural Africa.

The Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011 assesses the development of the mobile financial services (MFS) ecosystem in twenty countries. Its purpose is to provide a tool for decision makers to identify relative areas of strength and weakness and to prioritize opportunities for collaborative action to build scale in mobile financial services. The Report defines mobile financial services development in terms of the key drivers across the institutional, market and end-user environments that lead to adoption and scale. Measures of mobile financial services development are captured across seven pillars:

1. Regulatory proportionality

2. Consumer protection

3. Market competitiveness

4. Market catalysts

5. End-user empowerment and access

6. Distribution and agent network

7. Adoption and availability

The Report thus takes a comprehensive view in assessing the factors that contribute to the long-term development of mobile financial services. It includes mobile payments and transfers within its scope but also the development of other vital financial services such as savings, credit, and insurance.

Mobile telephony has diffused more rapidly than any Indian technology in recent memory, yet systematic studies of its impact are rare, focusing on technological rather than social change. We employ network surveys of separate groups of Kerala residents in 2002 and again in 2007 to examine recent shifts in mobile usage patterns and social relationships.

Results show (1) near saturation of mobiles among both the professionals and nonprofessionals sampled, (2) a decrease in the number of social linkages across tie types and physical locations, and (3) a shift towards friends and family but away from work relationships in the core networks of Malayalis.

We interpret these findings as support for the bounded solidarity thesis of remote communication that emphasizes social insulation and network closure as mobiles shield individuals from their wider surroundings.

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries, yet yields in low-income countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields is the use of improved agricultural technologies, such as fertilizers, seeds and cropping techniques. Public-sector programs have attempted to overcome information- related barriers to technological adoption by providing agricultural extension services.

While such programs have been widely criticized for their limited scale, sustainability and impact, the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage in developing countries provides a unique opportunity to facilitate technological adoption via information and communication technology (ICT)-based extension programs.

This article outlines the potential mechanisms through which ICT could facilitate agricultural adoption and the provision of extension services in developing countries. It then reviews existing programs using ICT for agriculture, categorized by the mechanism (voice, text, internet and mobile money transfers) and the type of services provided. Finally, we identify potential constraints to such programs in terms of design and implementation, and concludes with some recommendations for implementing field-based research on the impact of these programs on farmers’ knowledge, technological adoption and welfare.

The use of mobile banking is an increasingly important component of national and regional economic development in Southern Africa. Mobile banking can help bring the large unbanked population into the formal financial sector, and can facilitate cross-border trade by easing the difficulty for small businesses and traders to make financial transactions.

For mobile banking to reach its full potential in Southern Africa, however, African governments must establish more efficient regulatory frameworks and implement well-designed pilot programs to gain more insight into the challenges facing a full rollout of mobile banking

If communications and high-tech companies are to achieve their growth targets over the next few years, they must look to the emerging economies. These markets, with large populations, hold great promise. Although many consumers in these areas live in rural areas and rely on more limited means, their disposable income has risen in recent years. Many such consumers have become more confident about the future, and are now willing to buy aspirational products such as mobile phones and services, even on credit.

To achieve high performance in this environment, companies must understand the key mobile trends as they evolve in developing economies. They must develop a deeper understanding of the mobile value proposition to emergingmarket consumers as well as their distinctive service needs. New distribution networks must be created. Content, products and services need to be tailored to local populations. These challenges will require new models of collaboration to succeed in a more complex ecosystem.

Enthusiasm amongst international development agencies about harnessing the potential of Information and communications technologies (ICTs) for development has waned as observers have recently questioned the Impact and sustainability of such interventions. By presenting the findings of research specifically designed to measure Impact on livelihoods, Strengthening Rural Livelihoods offers new evidence for the development benefits of ICTs.

The book presents an overview of SIX research projects within the 'Knowledge Networking for Rural Development In Asia Pacific' (ENRAP) research programme. It asks if ICTs enabled farmers to sell beyond local markets and at better prices, and whether there have been social gains in linking geographically disparate households and social networks.

Using a control trial approach In four out of the SIX project case studies, and critically assessing the pros and cons of this methodology including the ethical Implications, the authors have provided significant new Insights Into how to overcome the challenges of mainstreaming lCTs Into rural livelihoods and more effectively measuring its effects. This book will appeal to academics, civil society organizations, practitioners and students who are Interested In what works and what doesn't work when applying ICTs to rural livelihoods.

Service providers periodically publish different tariff offers with the objective of both customer acquisition and customer retention. Transparency in the provision of telecommunication services and tariff offers has always been and continues to be of prime concern to the Authority. TRAI has in the past taken several steps to enhance transparency in tariff offers.

The Authority, however, is receiving several complaints and representations from consumers and their representatives seeking further effective transparency measures. In view of the increased competition as well as the spread of telecom activity to rural areas, the relevance of having a more transparent regime for tariff offerings cannot be overemphasised.  At the same time, service providers and their associations have also raised certain concerns. This consultation paper brings out various issues that have a bearing on telecom tariff offers.

We argue that access to prepay data will be as essential to the widespread adoption and use of the mobile internet in developing countries as access to prepay airtime is/was to the adoption of the mobile telephone.  In late 2009, we conducted a desk assessment of the availability of pre-pay (payas-you-go) data from the major operators in 53 African countries. In 36 cases we were able to identify at least one operator in each country which offered pre-pay data, and in 3 cases we could determine that no prepay data was available.  

Information available from operators was vague, incomplete, and hard to obtain, suggesting a threshold in general awareness and enthusiasm on the part of operators may not yet have been crossed. We describe an ongoing follow-up “crowdsourcing” activity underway to fill in information from the remaining 14 countries, and suggest topics for further research, both on the demand and supply sides of the prepaid data equation. 

This paper uses data from nationally representative household survey conducted in 17 African countries to analyse mobile adoption and usage. This paper shows that countries differ in their levels of ICT adoption and usage and also in  factors that influence adoption and  usage. Income and education vastly enhances mobile adoption but gender, age and membership in social networks have little impact. Income is the main explanatory variable for usage. In terms of mobile expenditure the study also finds linkages to fixed-line, work and public phone usages. These linkages need however be explored in more detail in future. Mobile expenditure is inelastic with respect to income, ie the share of mobile expenditure of individual income increases less than 1% for each 1% increase in income. This indicates that people with higher income spend  a smaller proportion of their income on mobile expenditure compared to those with less income. 

The study provides tools to identify policy intervention to improve ICT take up and usage and define universal service obligations based on income and monthly usage costs. It help to put a number to what can be expected from lower access and usage costs in terms of market volume and number of new subscribers. Linking this to other economic data such as national household income and expenditure surveys and GDP calculation would allow to forecast the economic and social impact of policy interventions. Concrete recommendations are being made for policy interventions and regulatory measures to decrease access and usage costs.

This paper aims to explore the use and impact of mobile telephony on the performance of companies in developing countries through a nationwide survey comprised of thousands of enterprises representing a true sample of the business sector in Palestine. This paper complements studies that make the linkage between mobile communications and economic activities at micro or enterprise level. It analyses the adoption patterns and rational behind these patterns as revealed by the business owners and managers of Palestinian enterprises.Porter’s value chain is used as a framework to assess the impact of mobile telephony in work processes.

The survey covered thousands of enterprises of all sizes and economic activities,selected to embody a representative sample of the Palestinian business sector. It further explores the views of the owners and managers of these enterprises regarding the use of ICTs.The study reveals that mobile phones have meaningfully enhanced internal processes and the overall value chain. Most notably, mobile phones were effective in bridging the information and connectivity gap businesses in developing countries ordinarily suffer.

The study has also found that small and micro enterprises gain from the use of mobiles the same as what large enterprises do, especially in mainstream operations like marketing and sales, information flow, and provision of customer services. This is happening at the time when there is a huge difference in resources between the two categories of enterprises. The study came to conclude that mobile benefits are not favoring one business sector from the other, in the sense that all business sectors are capable of tailoring mobile phone services to suit their needs

This compendium of articles (available at a cost) attempts to critically investigate the use and utility of mobile phones in Africa. Contributors include Nathan Eagle who writes about ‘Economics and power within the African telecommunication industry’,  Amanda Atwood’s report on Kubatana’s experiences in Zimbabwe setting up mobiles as a means of sharing news outside of government propaganda, to Bukeni Waruzi’s essay on collecting data on children’s rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004.  SMS Uprising is published by Fahamu, a British-based organization with a focus on information services for Africa. For a critique of the book see our aticle here.

If communications and high-tech companies are to achieve their growth targets over the next few years, they must look to the emerging economies. These markets, with large populations, hold great promise. Although many consumers in these areas live in rural areas and rely on more limited means, their disposable income has risen in recent years. Many such consumers have become more confident about the future, and are now willing to buy aspirational products such as mobile phones and services, even on credit.

To achieve high performance in this environment, companies must understand the key mobile trends as they evolve in developing economies. They must develop a deeper understanding of the mobile value proposition to emerging market consumers as well as their distinctive service needs. New distribution networks must be created. Content, products and services need to be tailored to local populations. These challenges will require new models of collaboration to succeed in a more complex ecosystem.

The goal of the plan is to inform infoDev-supported mobile application labs in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) – and other mobile application laboratory initiatives globally – to develop sustainable business models and transition from a donor-funded start-up phase to a selffinancing, sustainable phase over a three-year period.

The plan's six chapters cover the following topics:

• Landscape Analysis describes mobile applications labs and similar organizations, including success factors and challenges across these labs.
• Segmentation Analysis offers a typology of mLabs based on relevant defining characteristics and explores examples from parallel fields (e.g., software development, business incubation, technology transfer) to identify the characteristics of labs that function most effectively.
• Offering & Promotional Strategies examines the services that best support sustainability for the mLab, and offers strategies for driving branding and awareness.
• Business Model and Pricing Strategies defines potential revenue streams for the services that the labs offer, including potential price lists and menus of options that are tailored to regional markets via the companion Business Model Workbook Tool.
• Operating Model provides recommendations on resource requirements (e.g., equipment, staffing, skills) and the phased rollout of services and functions over time.
• Customer and Partner Strategies including the identification of intermediate clients (e.g., mobile applications developers, SMEs), end clients (e.g., app stores, network operators, equipment manufacturers, governments) as well as potential partners, investors and donors.

According to industry estimates, there are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa now, up from 246 million in 2008. In 2000, the number of mobile phones first exceeded that of fixed telephones. Africans can accelerate development by skipping less efficient technologies and moving directly to more advanced ones.

The telecommunications sector continues to attract a flurry of public and private investment from foreign sources and local banks, but the investment should be in software and services, not just cabling infrastructure.

In NGO circles today there is a great deal of hope about economic growth in developing countries and the development of an information society as a result of the growing presence of technological possibilities in communication. At first sight, African cities (and the countryside now too) seem to be flooded with different ICT possibilities that are expected to bring ‘development’. Studies in ICT development have indeed shown some social change: economic development is visible in local markets, youth are increasingly being connected and there are possibilities for social relating that were never there before.

Societies in Africa that were very mobile of old are now integrating these changes in specific ways. This may result in these societies joining the world at large but it might also lead to Africans becoming part of the so-called Fourth World (Castells), a world disconnected from others and experiencing new inequalities but without a specific geographical location. The changes in communication technology are transforming societies both in the North and in the South and are blurring the divisions between the two.

Thinking on technology and society has gone far beyond the technological determinism that often informs discourses in development circles. The mobile phone has become a symbol of the new communication era and is challenging societies and creating new forms of relating between the North and the South. This paper uses the mobile phone and its introduction in Africa as an example of how the new wave of ICT is leading to cultural, social and economic dynamics that could take societies in unexpected directions that may not, as such, open up society but instead close part of it off.

Technology holds many promises as a driver of positive changes, as a tool to address the problems and as an enabler to fulfil the potential. Economic development requires modern technology and technology plays an important role in most strategies for alleviating hunger and poverty. Technology can reduce transaction costs, save lives, facilitate education, strengthen entrepreneurship, provide access to markets and help to deliver basic services, ranging from water and sanitation to public administration. However, the same technology can also be destructive and a cause of problems. Some technological developments can be facilitated or managed, others happen and require an adequate response.

It is this manifold interrelation of technology with its environment that makes exploring the future of technology so interesting and valuable. There is a need to explore how technology in Africa will or might evolve; to discuss the drivers and the obstacles, the issues technology might resolve and the problems it might cause; to identify how technology changes society and how African societies might change global technology. These are big and complex questions and the STT foresight project, which ends with this publication, is a contribution to this discussion that is still in its infancy with respect to Africa.

The world is witnessing a new dawn with regard to the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to contribute in the fight against poverty. For the first time, there are now realistic opportunities for inhabitants of remote locations in low-income countries to get connected via ICTs. Farmers, fishermen as well as entrepreneurs in urban areas are rapidly adopting mobile phones as a key tool to advance their commercial activities, and some poor people are finding new livelihoods on the back of this trend. Against this background, the Information Economy Report 2010 focuses on the nexus of ICTs, enterprises and poverty alleviation. Whereas the knowledge base needs to grow considerably, the evidence presented in this Report suggests that more attention should be given by policymakers and other stakeholders to this new set of opportunities.

The Report is organized into five chapters. Chapter I introduces a conceptual framework for the analysis that follows. Chapter II reviews recent connectivity and affordability trends to gauge the degree of access and uptake of different ICTs among the poor. Chapter III turns to the role of the poor in the production of ICT goods and services (the ICT sector). In chapter IV, the focus shifts to the use of ICT by enterprises, with emphasis on those that matter most for poor people, namely small and micro-enterprises in urban and rural areas. Finally, chapter V presents the main policy implications from the analysis.