Scaling Mobile Technologies to Maximize Reach and Impact

This chapter explores three existing financial approaches to scaling mobile technologies in low- and middle-income countries: user-paid services, reverse billing, and zero-rated platforms. As affordability is an impediment to internet access, key strategies focusing around the involvement of mobile network operators and governments are investigated in relation to sustainability, scale, reach, and impact for mobile technology projects in the world. Various examples under each type are explored as a starting point for understanding the risks and benefits of each approach. The chapter also discusses the importance of mobile initiatives in tackling social issues today. </jats:p

“Everyone Will Be Connected”

Information and communication for development thinkers has come up with many plausible interventions that promise to improve the lives of underprivileged people in developing countries. The people that these interventions are meant for have not always benefited from these initiatives because they have limited ICT access due to its cost. There is therefore a need to improve universal access by enabling affordable access by the poor. This chapter, therefore, discusses free basics and how they can be used to improve affordable ICT access in order to facilitate ICT4D interventions in African countries. Since the use of free basics is not without controversy, a balanced analysis and an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of this initiative are provided. Social capital is used as the theoretical lens for evaluating the use of free basics for improving ICT access for those who cannot afford it. The chapter makes a case for the viability of using free basics through a discussion of case studies on how free basics have been used to empower underprivileged people, especially girls in Africa.</jats:p