Mobile Telephony Access and Usage in Africa

This paper uses data from nationally representative household surveys conducted in 17 African countries to analyse mobile adoption and usage. The paper shows that countries differ in their levels of ICT adoption and usage and also in factors that influence adoption and usage. Income and education vastly enhance mobile adoption but gender, age and membership of social networks have little impact. Income is the main explanatory variable for usage. In terms of mobile expenditure the study also finds linkages to fixed-line, work and public phone usages. These linkages need, however, to be explored in more detail in future. Mobile expenditure is inelastic with respect to income, ie the proportion of mobile expenditure to individual income increases less than1% for each1% increase in income. This indicates that people with higher income spend a smaller proportion of their income on mobile expenditure compared to those with less income. The study provides tools to identify policy intervention to improve ICT take-up and usage and defines universal service obligations based on income and monthly usage costs. It helps to put a number to what can be expected from lower access and usage costs in terms of market volume and number of new subscribers. Linking this to other economic data such as national household income and expenditure surveys and GDP calculation would allow forecast of the economic and social impact of policy interventions. Key policy interventions would be regulatory measures to decrease access and usage costs, rural electrification and policies to increase ICT skills of pupils and teachers

Mobile telephony access and usage in Africa

The study provides tools to identify policy interventions to improve ICT uptake and usage, and to define universal service obligations based on income and monthly usage costs. Results show what can be expected from lower access and usage costs in terms of market volume and new subscribers. Income is the main explanatory variable for usage. In terms of mobile expenditure, it is inelastic with respect to income. The share of mobile expenditure of individual income indicates that people with higher income spend a smaller proportion compared to those with lower income

The use of Mobile Phones by SMMEs in a Developing Economy: The Case in South Africa

SMMEs are seen as an important avenue for promoting the economic development in South Africa. With the high prevalence of mobile phones in the country, these devices are seen as a means of leapfrogging the typical technological development path and providing SMMEs with the benefits of mobility and Internet access. A nationwide survey was conducted amongst SMMEs in South Africa to gain an understanding of: their characteristics including the demographics of the owner/manager and characteristics of the business, the use of mobile phones in the business, the relevant skills of the SMMEs’ owner/managers, their means of Internet access, and their business operations challenges. The main findings indicated that despite relatively high levels of education, and despite strong uptake of mobile phones, their usage was very basic and the true benefits of mobile telephony and Internet access were not being realized by the SMMEs. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations made to address the situation

Early experience of mobile telephony: A comparison of two villages in Papua New Guinea

This paper examines social change following the recent introduction of mobile telephony into rural communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It presents the findings of substantial fieldwork conducted in 2009, and suggests ways in which the new technology is already changing people’s lives and relationships. The paper identifies the roles of mobile telephones in two communities, the changes taking place, and how villagers are responding to them. Comparison of the two villages is strategic as it highlights similarities in perceptions of mobile phones in these two very different settings. An ethnographic approach is adopted, situated within an interpretative methodology. Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, orally-administered surveys and participant observation. The theoretical lens is focused on the ‘communicative ecology’ concept, which stems from the communication research tradition. This research is significant as it addresses changes currently occurring in the communication methods of whole communities

The impact of mobile telephony on developing country micro-enterprises: a Nigerian case study

Informational challenges-absence, uncertainty, asymmetry-shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. For developing country micro-enterprises, which form the bulk of all enterprises worldwide, these challenges shape the characteristics of their supply chains. They reduce the chances that business and trade will emerge. They keep supply chains localised and intermediated. They make trade within those supply chains slow, costly, and risky. Mobile telephony may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges and, hence, to alter the characteristics of trade within micro-enterprise supply chains. However, mobile telephony has only recently penetrated. This paper, therefore, presents one of the first case studies of the impact of mobile telephony on the numerically-dominant form of enterprise, based around a case study of the cloth-weaving sector in Nigeria. It finds that there are ways in which costs and risks are being reduced and time is saved, often by substitution of journeys. But it also finds a continuing need for journeys and physical meetings due to issues of trust, design intensity, physical inspection and exchange, and interaction complexity. As a result, there are few signs of the de-localisation or disintermediation predicted by some commentators. An economising effect of mobile phones on supply chain processes may therefore co-exist with the entrenchment of supply chain structures and a growing 'competitive divide' between those with and without access to telephony

Use of informal mobile telephony in low income households in Colombia

Access to mobile telephony in Colombia exhibits rather interesting features compared to other countries. Colombia witnessed the beginning of a new alternative for communication consisting in the use of informal resale of minutes on the streets and small stores during the first years of this century. In this paper we are interested in analyzing the main factors that determine the utilization of this kind of service. We use a probabilistic model to explain the characteristics of the people that use `informal resale´ on the streets and we find that people in the modality of prepayment and people from small cities has a higher probability of using this alternative. It is also found that people in the firm-leader use more often this service. These results seem indicate that price differentials among on-net and off-net and between prepaid and postpaid are the causes of the rise of this economic activity.***El acceso a la telefonía móvil en Colombia evidencia ciertas particularidades con respecto a otros países. En Colombia surgió una nueva alternativa de comunicación que consistía en la venta de minutos de celular en las calles y en pequeños negocios durante los primeros años de ésta década. En este documento se analizan las principales características de quienes usan esta modalidad de comunicación con base en una encuesta dirigida a usuarios y no usuarios de bajos ingresos. Se usa un modelo probabilístico para explicar las características de las personas que lo usan y se encuentra que las personas que están en la modalidad de contrato prepago y que viven en ciudades pequeñas tienen una mayor probabilidad de usar esta alternativa de comunicación. De otro lado se encuentra que quienes están con el operador dominante tienden a usar este servicio también de una forma más notoria. Estos resultados parecen indicar que los diferenciales de precios entre las llamadas off-net y on-net así como entre prepago y postpago son los que alimentaron el surgimiento de esta actividad.Mobile telephony, ICT, gender gap, Resale

The global information technology report 2014

Executive summary When The Global Information Technology Report (GITR) and the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) were created more than 13 years ago, the attention of decision makers was focused on how to develop strategies that would allow them to benefit from what Time Magazine had described as “the new economy”: a new way of organizing and managing economic activity based on the new opportunities that the Internet provided for businesses. At present, the world is slowly emerging from one of the worst financial and economic crises in decades, and policymakers, business leaders, and civil society are looking into new opportunities that can consolidate growth, generate new employment, and create business opportunities. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to rank high on the list as one of the key sources of new opportunities to foster innovation and boost economic and social prosperity, for both advanced and emerging economies. For more than 13 years, the NRI has provided decision makers with a useful conceptual framework to evaluate the impact of ICTs at a global level and to benchmark the ICT readiness and usage of their economies

Mobile Telephony: Economic and Social Impact

The ubiquitous cell phone is often portrayed as the scourge of civilized society: rude callers on streets, in malls and offices, disturbing those around them with loud talking, school kids constantly texting in class, drivers whose attention has wandered during a cell phone conversation causing accidents, “crackberry” addicts who check their e-mail during real-world conversations, the list goes on. Is this an invention whose result has been to make us all worse off, like Internet spam and phishing attacks? In this paper, I informally survey the rise and impact of cellular technology, both in the US and the world. I find that the reach and the speed of its worldwide diffusion has exceeded even that of the Internet, and certainly with far more reach and speed than the personal computer. Mobile’s economic and social impact has been unprecedented, especially in the developing world where it has been a boon to economic development. While many in the US focus on expanding the diffusion of the PC both domestically and worldwide, as well as expanding the availability of broadband connectivity, I argue that while PC-broadband architecture will continue to be important, the terminal device of choice for most people on this planet will be the mobile, accessing information services over a wireless connection. Mobile telephony is, I believe, the highest impact communications technology of the last 50 years, rivaled only by the Internet.

Economic Development Potential through IP Telephony for Namibia

IP telephony, economic growth, telecommunications, ICT, Granger causality, Namibia