The current issue of Nokia’s Expanding Horizons quarterly magazine highlights LIRNEasia’s Teleuse@BOP3 study findings from India, illustrating this point.

Mobiles are now the most common form of communication, pushing public phones into second place… The rapid evolution of the mobile into a multi-purpose communications and knowledge tool combined with its fast adoption by the BOP, means they and the majority of people in the developing world are likely to have their first Internet experience via a mobile.

Although use of “Mobile 2.0” services such as payments and  e-government services is low, these are the ‘doors’ through which people are likely to enter these services. Governments and industry in South Asia need to understand potential barriers to usage and to identify what will motivate use of ‘non-voice’ applications among the BOP.

Key results can be previewed here. The full article can be viewed here.

After the United States, the ranking found that Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway rounded out the five most productive users of connectivity. Japan ranked 10, and Korea, 18.

And while wired and wireless broadband networks used by consumers lagged other countries, the United States ranked No. 1 in the world for technology use and skills by consumers. (This was measured by comparing countries on five measures: The penetration of Internet use, penetration of Internet banking, wired and wireless voice minutes per capita, SMS messages per capita, and consumer software spending.)

To see the full methodology, look at page 38 in this report.

We are so smitten with screens that we often can’t bear to choose one over another: 31 percent of Internet use occurs while we’re in front of a TV set. We are also taking an interest in watching video on our phones: 100 million handsets are video-capable.

Good news for worried parents: All those hours their teenagers spend socializing on the Internet are not a bad thing, according to a new study by the MacArthur Foundation.

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

DG: Indonesia is a challenging country to connect. 17000 islands. teledensity is 12%, compares poorly with its neighbors. Internet penetration is far lower than Asian average.
 So what has given rise to Wifi in Indonesia?

• Regulatory conditions (non independent regulator, exclusivities, no local loop unbundling, etc.)
• lack of competition in infrastructure sector (leading to very high prices and proliferation of unlicensed ISPs, etc)
• extent of infrastructural development (uneven backbone development, leased-lines not available)
• grassroots activism (lobbying to get 2.4GHz unlicensed, etc)

Lessons learnt:

• hostile environment spawned Wifi and related innovations; can this be replicated without the baggage?
• Wifi is quick and involves less hassle  in deployment; however it has some difficulties.
• Wifi has not contributed to spread of Internet use in Indonesia; unless leased line prices are regulates or effective competition if introduces, Internet diffusion will remain slow.

HdeS: Wifi is a local solution, how can it lead to widespread Internet use?

DG: Wifi is being used for backhaul in Indonesia. It’s the next-best solution for a setting where the optimal doesn’t work.

So What can be replicated?

• civil society role – training, etc.
• Internet exchange