Tag Archives: Mobile
From mobile-use data to creditworthiness assessment
One thing we know about “big data” in developing countries is that the only data stream that covers the poor is that which is generated by the mobile operators. Here is an account of an interesting application of mobile big data: There’s a vast market of consumers in countries like Brazil, China, India, and the [...]
Mobile prices come down in S Africa; more support for lower mobile termination
Our sister organization RIA has been pushing hard for lower termination rates in South Africa. Now in the context of a retail price war, a small operator has joined the call. This nicely refutes the claim that mobile termination rates have nothing to do with retail prices. In a move that will no doubt irk [...]
Final: Data roaming prices capped in Europe
Europe was the pioneer in regulating voice roaming. It has now acted on data roaming. If talk could bring down prices, South Asia would also be a pioneer. European lawmakers on Thursday approved a plan to extend and lower the Continent’s limits on mobile phone roaming charges paid by consumers for another five years, and [...]
Imagining the Internet: No wallets by 2020
According to this overview, m-money is the future. The survey, released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project along with Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center, asked just over 1,000 technologists and social scientists to opine on the future of the wallet in 2020. Nearly two-thirds agreed that “cash [...]
Price benchmarking by RIA applies pressure on regulator and policy makers in South Africa
The quote below comes from one of many media reports that carried the results of RIA benchmarking of mobile prices across Africa. SA’s prepaid cellphone pricing is three times more expensive than Namibia’s, making SA among the most expensive countries in Africa despite an intervention to regulate the tariffs, according to a study released this [...]
Do a million mobiles change the political environment?
North Korea was, until recently, the country with the least mobile phones. Then it gave a license (3G no less) to Orascom. Now it has a million plus mobiles connections. The New York Times speculates that the presence of a million mobiles has made the big blatant lie no longer a viable option for the [...]
Increasing efficiency in agriculture: sharing the potato study findings with stakeholders
The findings of the potato study conducted in Bangladesh under LIRNEasia’s 2010-2012 research cycle were shared with stakeholders in Dhaka on 10 April 2012. The dissemination workshop was attended by high level representatives from the government agencies such as Bangladeshi Agriculture Research Institute, Agriculture Information Service (AIS) of Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh, large scale exporters, processors and cold storage [...]
Mobile apps attract 10% of total venture capital investments in 2011 Q4
Rarely do I do two posts off one story, but this story seems to deserve more than one. Venture capitalists are eager to get in on the mobile trend. According to the research firm CB Insights, mobile apps and companies attracted 10 percent of the total investment dollars from American venture capital firms in last [...]
Instagram’s 1 billion valuation focuses attention on mobile apps
We’ve been thinking about mobile apps for over a year, thanks to infoDev whose Call for Proposals we bid on. But 1 billion? That still came as a surprise. Is it that the days of thinking about m apps as things that could be worked up in garages is over? Now, at a time when [...]
90% of Bangladesh Internet use is through mobiles
Interesting piece on value added services in Bangladesh in Daily Star: VAS helps operators go beyond typical voice services to earn more revenue. According to Grameenphone’s annual report, 6 percent of the company’s total revenue comes from the internet service. In Bangladesh, value-added services were basically introduced by the short message service (SMS). But nowadays, [...]
As phones get smart, they get stolen more
Pakistan was early in trying to deal with this problem. And now the US is getting in on the act. Over the last year, roughly one out of three robberies nationwide have involved the theft of a cellphone, according to an F.C.C. summary of the new plan. The thefts have grown most rapidly in urban [...]
Microsoft’s weakness in mobile apps: An opportunity for developing-country developers?
For the thousands of young people in emerging Asia wanting to break into the apps market, perhaps an opportunity? But the hundreds of thousands of apps that run on Apple and Android devices will not work on phones like the Lumia 900 that use Microsoft’s Windows Phone software. And many developers are reluctant to funnel [...]
Mobile as first screen
We don’t write much about entertainment uses of mobiles, but it appears the game is changing there too. From third screen to first screen . . . In a keynote talk Thursday at MediaPost’s Mobile Insider Summit, Bayle explained that instead of determining how to shoehorn its programming from traditional media to mobile platforms, the [...]
Voice: The disruptive technology
We’ve been pushing for more-than-voice services over mobile. So why do we think voice is the game changer on the horizon? It’s a different kind of voice. One that allows commands to be given to ICT devices using voice. For the BOP, the evidence is crystal clear. Keyboards are a constraint. If people can interact [...]
Transforming the roaming market?
A roaming customer buys the service from his/her service provider, the one who controls the number. The service provider purchases roaming and billing services from a foreign operator in order to provide the service to the customer. Today, the most that a customer who wants to be reachable (who wants to receive calls while abroad) [...]
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