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Asia Pacific is the largest mobile market in the world, and is continuing to show strong growth. Asia Pacific accounts for half of the total mobile connections in the world, with 3 billion lines. Looking ahead, the region is expected to continue its strong growth, adding a further 1.5 billion connections between 2010 and 2015 – similar in scale to the achievements of the last five years when 1.7 billion new connections were added. This growth and scale is encouraging for consumers and investors alike, as the industry has shown resilience through the global economic crisis by continuing to invest funds to improve the quality of mobile services across the region.

The 2011 Asia Pacific Mobile Observatory updates and expands on the first Asia Pacific Mobile Observatory carried out in 2009. With new data, analysis and insight it provides a comprehensive reference point for participants in the mobile industry, policy makers and other interested stakeholders.

This year’s report focuses especially on the positive economic and social impact of mobile broadband, which is having a transformative effect across Asia Pacific. The innovative Mobile Broadband Readiness Index aims to show how the AP17 countries compare against one another from a ‘readiness’ perspective and identify the means to sustain growth from a market, regulatory policy and corporate strategy perspective.

The most widespread information and communication technology (ICT) in developing countries today is the mobile phone. The majority of people in the least developed countries still live in rural areas and their livelihood depends on the primary industries. This study investigates the use of mobile phones among farmers in rural Tanzania in order to supply empirical data on the developmental role of this technology. The results show that the improved access to communication and information that mobile phones represent affects the entire cyclic farming life during the year and has resulted in considerable changes in the entire livelihood constructs, increased opportunities and reduced risks for rural farmer.

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.

FrontlineSMS is a software platform that enables structured communication via text messaging, using only a computer and a mobile phone or GSM (Global System for Mobile) modem. The platform enables two-way messaging between users and groups of people via mobile networks without the need for an Internet connection.

The purpose of this guide is to provide FrontlineSMS users designing, implementing, and monitoring programs with data integrity concerns in mind with a data integrity framework. The guide is intended to help users to understand, analyze, and address the vulnerabilities, risks and threats that can affect the integrity of the information communicated through the FrontlineSMS platform.

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.

On January 28, 2011, Egypt’s President, Hosni Mubarak, took the drastic and unprecedented step of shutting off the Internet for five days across an entire nation. His reason for doing so was simple: to halt the flow of communication and coordinated assembly taking place over social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. That Mubarak took this desperate step — which cost Egypt an estimated $90 million and outraged the international community — demonstrates the incredible power of social media. Mubarak’s decision to shut off the Internet took place after three days of demonstrations by tens of thousands of Egyptians. Although the demonstrations were centered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square (or “Liberation Square”), there were also substantial demonstrations in Alexandria, Mansoura, and Suez. The protesters expressed outrage over several issues, including state corruption, police brutality, and economic oppression. Their demand was clear: President Hosni Mubarak must leave the country.

Various groups, including April 6 Youth Movement, We Are All Khaled Said, National Association for Change, and Kefaya led a coordinated effort using social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, to spread a revolutionary message. Prior to the first day of protest, 85,000 Egyptians pledged on Facebook to attend “Revolution Day.” Similarly, April 6 Movement had over 90,000 members during the protests, and We Are Khaled Said had over 40,000 Facebook fans. In the two weeks leading up to and including the first few days of the protest, Egyptians created 32,000 Facebook groups and 14,000 Facebook pages. It is likely that a substantial number of the five million Facebook users in Egypt were in some way encouraged to attend the protests.

A number of countries recently experienced protests organized by citizens that were in pursuit of accountability and openness from government.  It was witnessed that social media played a highly important role in those events; among others, continuously providing updated information, establishing human networks, forming opinions, mobilizing people, and taking concerted actions.

Of course, social media is not the sole reason that made the events happen.  However, it can be at least said that the general public were encouraged to move into the actions for their enhanced well-being.  From a broader perspective, those occurrences also showcase that Information & Communications Technologies (ICTs) can help enhance social development among people.

This short note seeks to develop analysis on the role of social media in social development, in the wake of the increasing diffusion of mobile phone Internet access. 

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.

Around the world, countless lives are lost due to insufficient access to quality health information. The availability of accurate, timely, and analyzed data is directly relevant to the quality of an individual’s health and the healthcare system in general, the delivery of individual care, and the understanding and management of overall health systems.

This discussion paper:

1) Examines the role ICTs, and mobile technology in particular, can play in improving access to quality health information, review the ecosystem of health information related to patients,

2) Traces the data throughout the continuum of care, examine health information flows from patients in villages to international health organizations and the most important steps in between,

3) Identifies common ground on which technologists and public health professionals can develop innovative strategies and tools to strengthen health care systems by supporting health data flows, working from the premise that better data collection will lead to better health policies and health outcomes,

4) Focuses on three healthcare domains – surveillance systems, supply chain, and human resources – and through the perspectives of experts in these domains, identify critical gaps in health information flows that technology-based solutions could address. In the case of each of these three domains, we use maternal health as an example to show how technology-backed interventions can improve health information flows,

5) Identifies barriers, choke points, and other inefficiencies to guide the discussion of how modern ICTs can improve health information flows and health outcomes in the developing world,

6) Provides recommendations for using modern ICTs to make health information flow more efficiently and perhaps even transform the process of care delivery itself.

Conditional and unconditional cash transfers have been effective in improving development outcomes in a variety of contexts, yet the costs of these programs to program recipients and implementing agencies are rarely discussed. The introduction of mobile money transfer systems in many developing countries offers new opportunities for a more cost-effective means of implementing cash transfer programs.

This paper reports on the first randomized evaluation of a cash transfer program delivered via the mobile phone. In response to a devastating drought in Niger, households in targeted villages received monthly cash transfers as part of a social protection program. One-third of targeted villages received a monthly cash transfer via a mobile money transfer system (called zap), whereas one-third received manual cash transfers and the remaining one-third received manual cash transfers plus a mobile phone. We show that the zap delivery mechanism strongly reduced the variable distribution costs for the implementing agency, as well as program recipients’ costs of obtaining the cash transfer. The zap approach also resulted in additional benefits: households in zap villages used their cash transfer to purchase a more diverse set of goods, had higher diet diversity, depleted fewer assets and grew more types of crops, especially marginal cash crops grown by women.

We posit that the potential mechanisms underlying these results are the lower costs and greater privacy of the receiving the cash transfer via the zap mechanism, as well as changes in intra-household decision-making. This suggests that m-transfers could be a cost-effective means of providing cash transfers for remote rural populations, especially those with limited road and financial infrastructure. However, research on the broader welfare effects in the short- and long-term is still needed.

The Vodafone Health Debate series is part of our continuing commitment to thought leadership in healthcare. It brings together senior pharma, public and private health stakeholders to learn, share and debate on issues and new thinking brought forward by renowned thought leaders and industry experts. Our aim is to provide some evidence- based stimulus that will encourage all those working in the different areas of healthcare to consider the innovation opportunities that are now available to them.

We believe that real progress can only be initiated when all stakeholders look beyond traditional horizons and share ideas that challenge the status quo so that together we can identify new ways of addressing current issues. Regulatory complexity, financial constraints, entrenched infrastructures and poor investment in technology combined with a lack of understanding by technology providers has meant that digital innovation in healthcare has been slow to take hold.

However, given changing healthcare needs of an increasingly aging population and the challenges presented by the current economic crisis, there is renewed interest in the potential of mHealth and Internet solutions to help reduce costs, increase efficiencies and effectiveness. This paper explores the practical reasons behind the slower than expected adoption of digital health technologies and discusses experiences from other sectors that could potentially help create wide scale adoption.

The GSM Association—the global trade association for mobile network operators—and its Development Fund believe that health hotlines can transform healthcare for poor people just as mobile phones are revolutionizing financial services (‘mobile money’). Health hotlines are simple to understand (“call a doctor”), provide immediate assistance, and are available to anyone with a mobile phone. The reach and branding of a mobile network operator (MNO), and the scalability of call center technology may mean that health hotlines serve vast numbers of people in the coming years.

As a first scan of the approach, this report tracks hotlines operating in developing countries, assesses their social and commercial success to date, and offers suggestions for governments, industry bodies and development agencies to advance this approach.

In the first section we define the health hotline model and present a brief landscape of health hotlines in operation today. Section 3 spotlights four of the most prominent health hotlines in developing countries, and compares their business approaches. In Section 4 we assess their commercial viability and potential for growth, and in Section 5 we evaluate their potential for social impact. Finally, Section 6 offers thoughts on how development agencies and governments can support the health hotline phenomenon.

This case study analyses the ways in which the Cell-Life initiative, a collaboration between UCT‘s (University of Cape Town) departments of Civil and Electrical Engineering and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), utilises technology-based solutions (in particular, cellphone technology) for the life management of patients living with HIV/AIDS.
 

Cell-Life is a model example of a socially responsive endeavor which utilizes technology to overcome limitations and constraints. The use of cellphones to save lives by aiding adherence to the ARV medication regime and gather data is a remarkable contribution to the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and signifies an intersection between the academic endeavour, innovation and the lives of ordinary people on the ground. The open approach taken by the organisation in sharing its work also illustrates how research is able to contribute to the 'undead count' (i.e. the number of lives saved) of academic research, which must surely be considered the greatest achievement of any endeavor.

After extensive studies of BRAC’s health services for mothers, neonates and children in rural and urban areas (MNCH and Manoshi, respectively), ClickDiagnostics has developed a mobile phone-based solution for streamlining BRAC’s data collection procedures in Manoshi, enabling BRAC to take a more pro-active approach in strategizing and reaching the women most in need in the urban slums.

ClickDiagnostics is in the concluding stages of piloting thissolution jointly with BRAC, and after the completion of the project in January, will support BRAC in refining the model and scaling up for nationwide implementation in MNCH and Manoshi projects, and possibly also in BRAC Health’s other program.

One important reason why many pregnant mothers succumb to death or preventable miscarriages is that it is expensive for government or non-government health organizations to track pregnant mothers to assess their level of risk and prioritize its limited resources for targeted intervention. A model in which community health-workers use ICT to gather real-time information about pregnant women and send to a specialist can help to address this gap and help health organizations take precautionary measures about risky cases of pregnancies.

In this paper, we present D-tree International’s work with medical algorithms and mobile applications to improve the standards of care in clinical and community settings. In particular, we present a mobile phone-based application called CommCare which helps community health workers (CHWs) to provide home-based care and social support to HIV, tuberculosis and other chronic patients. The application guides the CHWs through a series of questions which they answer using the phone’s number pad. The data then can be submitted directly to a central database over a cellular GPRS network.

We report on our experience developing and testing the application in Tanzania, including the iterative development process with the CHWs and training them to use the program. We include an account of some of the hardware and software issues encountered and resolved during the process, and some initial reactions from the first CHWs and clients to use the program. While the formal evaluation of the program is still in progress, initial findings show that the phonebased system is generally viewed positively by the users and by the clients as more discreet and better for privacy than the paper-based system.