India has been selected because of its success in establishing a framework of policies and regulations, which have stimulated the growth of mobile telecommunications over the past three years.

The latest data from the Indian government shows that India’s mobile operators are now collectively adding six to seven million new subscribers each month.

GSMA’s CEO Rob Conway presented the award to Thiru Dayanidhi Maran, India’s minister for communications and information technology. The presentation took place at the GSMA’s Leadership Summit in Barcelona.

The Indian government’s policies have not only helped revive but stimulate the country’s mobile industry, whose growth, only a few years ago, was stifled due to various challenges.

Since then, the government has done various policy and regulatory reforms. Relaxing rules on foreign direct investment, raising the limit for foreign investment in a telecoms company from 49 percent to 74 percent is a major milestone.

It has liberalised the domestic and international long-distance markets, facilitated the sharing of network infrastructure, increased the amount of commercially available radio frequency and secured spectrum for third generation mobile in the IMT-2000 core band.

The GSMA’s Government Leadership Award was given to Brazil in 2005 and to Pakistan in 2006.

Our friend and colleague Abu Saeed Khan is reporting on a major development on these lines from the GSM Congress in Barcelona:

:: bdnews24.com ::

Spearheaded by a special group of 19 mobile operators with networks in over 100 countries and representing over 600 million customers, GSMA believes the programme could double the number of recipients of international remittances to more than 1.5 billion, while helping to quadruple the size of the international remittances market to more than one trillion dollars by 2012.

To combine the strengths of the mobile and financial ecosystems, mobile operators are partnering with banks at a local or regional level, while GSMA is setting up a pilot project with MasterCard Worldwide, a global payments leader whose cards and network provide international authorisation, clearing and settlement.

GSMA and MasterCard, which has a 25,000 member-bank network, plan to pilot a global hub that will link together national markets and the local payment systems run by mobile operators in partnership with those local banks.

The hub will enable migrant workers to transfer money and notify their families via mobile phone.

“The creation of a global hub will enable the mobile networks, which now cover more than 80 percent of the world’s population, to offer the world’s burgeoning migrant population a convenient way to securely and cost-effectively transfer money to their families back in their home countries,” said Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA.

“The programme will resonate with governments because it makes the international payment market more transparent, encourages financial inclusion, reduces crime and boosts the flow of hard currency into their countries,” added Conway.

Ecology and economy is equally critical for mobile phone coverage in the less lucrative emerging markets. Diesel generators energise the base stations at remote locations. Supplying fuel across the unfriendly terrain is also a logistical nightmare. Such expensive exercise, however, inhibits the operators to invest in the low-yield regions.

These grueling problems have prompted the three organisations to set up a first of its kind pilot project in the world. They hope that bio-fuels may replace diesel as a source of power for mobile base stations located beyond the reach of the electricity grid.
 

They are setting up a supply chain designed to benefit the local population by sourcing a variety of locally-produced crops and processing them into bio-fuel in Nigeria. Groundnuts, pumpkin seeds, jatropha, and palm oil will be used in the initial pilot tests.
 

This non-fossil alternative gasoline also has a much lower impact on the environment than conventional diesel. Bio-diesel, being the cleaner burning fuel, results in fewer site-visits and also extends the life of the base station generator, reducing operators’ costs.
 

“In order to reach the next billion mobile users, we need to reach lower-spending segments of the population profitably,” said Ericsson’s sales and marketing vice president Bert Nordberg. “By using locally-produced bio-fuels, we could significantly lower the cost of operating mobile base stations in rural areas.”
 

The GSMA and Ericsson will draw on the findings of the pilot to help operators across the developing world to figure out they can use Bio-diesel to power their networks in the rural Nigeria.
 

Only 25 percent of this oil-rich country is connected to the electricity grid. MTN has invested in Y’ellowWatts, its own power system made up of an extensive grid of generators designed to keep the entire MTN network at an optimum level of performance.
 
“The early adoption of bio-fuel-powered mobile networks would place Africa at the forefront of a new wave of innovation that is making mobile communications affordable and accessible across the developing world,” said Karel Pienaar, CTIO of the MTN Group.
 Bio-diesel has several important advantages over conventional diesel as a power source for base stations. It can be produced locally, creating employment in rural areas, while reducing the need for transportation, related logistics and security.
 
“The extension of mobile networks into rural areas is vital to boost the social and economic welfare of the developing world,” said Rob Conway, GSMA’s CEO. “Bio-fuels have the potential to make that happen by giving mobile operators local access to a commercially and environmentally sustainable power supply.”
 

Bio-diesel has several important advantages over conventional diesel as a power source for base stations. It can be produced locally, creating employment in rural areas, while reducing the need for transportation, related logistics and security. “The extension of mobile networks into rural areas is vital to boost the social and economic welfare of the developing world,” said Rob Conway, GSMA’s CEO. “Bio-fuels have the potential to make that happen by giving mobile operators local access to a commercially and environmentally sustainable power supply.” The GSMA’s Development Fund finances this pilot project while Ericsson and MTN are setting up a pilot Bio-diesel-powered base station solution in Lagos and will later deploy Bio-diesel-fueled base stations in rural regions of south eastern and south western Nigeria.

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Motorola selected to supply affordable and robust handsets for second phase of programme to ‘connect the unconnected’

Singapore 27^th September 2005: The mobile industry has driven the wholesale cost of mobile phones to below US$30 as part of the GSM Association (GSMA) programme to make mobile telephony affordable for people in developing countries.
“To get below US$30 per handset is a milestone achievement,” said Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSMA, the global trade association for the world’s GSM mobile operators. “Today’s news cements the formation of a whole new market segment for the mobile industry and will bring the benefits of mobile communications to a huge swathe of people in developing countries.”
At the 3GSM World Congress in Singapore, Rob Conway, Chief Executive and board member of the GSMA, announced today that Motorola has been selected to supply the phase-two handset. “Motorola won thanks to a combination of a portfolio starting from sub-US$30, together with other key factors such as after-sales support, local service, brand presence and a choice of low-cost handset models including an exclusive product, the C113a for this programme,” said Conway.
The 10 operators supporting the second phase of the GSMA’s Emerging Market Handset programme expect to order about 6 million of these low-cost handsets from Motorola. The GSMA programme, which is chaired by Erik Aas, the Chief Executive of GrameenPhone Ltd. of Bangladesh, is supported by some of the leading operators in emerging markets – AIS, Bharti, BPL, Globe Telecom, Hutchison Essar, IDEA Cellular, MTN Group, Orascom Telecom, Telenor and Vodacom.
“The startup price is the single most important criteria for connecting the unconnected in emerging markets. The GSMA Emerging Market Handset initiative is a major step towards reducing the startup price, and will fuel significant economic growth, as well as major social changes, when so many new people can communicate directly from their home or on the move. “
Erik Aas, CEO of GrameenPhone.