We now have evidence to support the claim that those at the “Bottom of the Pyramid” (and therefore, the majority of people in the developing world) are likely to enter the world of knowledge and convenience promised by the Internet through the path opened by the rapidly increasing capabilities of mobile networks and user devices.
Mobile 2.0 describes the use of mobiles for “more‐than‐voice”. Mobiles are increasingly becoming payment devices which can also send/process/receive voice, text and images; it is envisaged that in the next few years, they will also be fully capable of information‐retrieval and publishing functions, normally associated with the Internet.
Mobile 2.0@BOP has been researched from two aspects: vertical and horizontal issues. Horizontal issues are the basic competitive and regulatory conditions that affect the emergence of Mobile 2.0@BOP. The vertical components explore how particular aspects such as micro‐payments and remittances, agriculture applications, voting applications, e‐government services, disaster warning, etc are taking shape and form.
The research findings will be disseminated by the respective researchers as follows.
New Delhi, India on March 4 and 5, 2010
Payal Malik – Issues in licensing and Spectrum allocation
Tahani Iqbal – Mobile Number Portability
Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 28-29, 2010
Erwin Alampay, PhD – Mobile payments
Tahani Iqbal – Mobile Number Portability
Nirmali Sivapragasam – Mobiles, payment and logistics, based on a case of study of CellBazaar, Bangladesh
Bangkok, Thailand on March 30, 2010
Erwin Alampay, PhD – Mobile payments
Puree Sirasoontorn, PhD – Mobile value-added services, based on Buzzcity case study
Media coverage will be added here as they happen.
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