Development Through Mobiles
Syed Mohammad Ali writes about development and mobile telecommunication in Pakistan and developing countries, quoting the Base Of Pyramid (BoP) research work by LIRNEAsia. Excerpts from his article at Daily Times:
Numerous studies have pointed towards the positive relationship between phone penetration and national incomes.
But there are also simultaneous concerns that ICT benefits are only being availed by a small segment of populations within the developing world. Here we consider on-ground impacts that a specific communication technology like mobile phones can have on the lives of common people.
Many more poor people are now able to afford phones within the region. They seem to consider it efficient to have phone access, which makes sense, since phones can help even poor people save time and effort by avoiding making physical trips to convey a message or get required information.
On economic benefits and trust on M-commerce:
It seems logical to assume that saving time and effort also translates into economic savings. However, the poor themselves do not generally relate phone access to tangible economic gains yet. While some small scale studies have actually managed to quantify the benefits that a phone can have, in some Indian fisheries and among agricultural workers in Sri Lanka who are using phones to get better prices for their products, researchers point to an apparent disconnect in poor people’s perceptions concerning the economic value of a phone. Perhaps this is so because in most emerging and developing countries, people still prefer physical interactions for their financial dealings. This is an interesting issue meriting further attention, especially in the coming era of mobile payments.
One wonders, for instance, if poor people will ever start to trust an SMS confirmation as opposed to a hand-to-hand transfer of money. Expatriates from Bangladesh seem to have overcome this fear, and the Grameen Bank has been working with the government to provide expatriates the chance to send money to their relatives back home using mobile phones.
TelecomPk.Net is a leading source of information and analysis about Pakistan Telecom industry.
Loading ...
On the question of trust: there is evidence.
In any country with electronic reloads of prepaid phones there is incredible trust in the phone company. Think about it: person walks up to retailer; passes him/her money; the retailer does something with his phone; customer gets an e-mail saying value has been added to the account. Customer walks away. No receipt.
If this is not trust, I do not know what is.