by Ian Moraes
28. October 2009 09:08
It's refreshing to see a number of initiatives targeting the bottom of the pyramid market segment to address the unconnected (users who do not own phones) and the unbanked (users who do not have access to banking services).
The first example to note is the recent collaboration of Google and the Grameen Foundation who are developing applications to address specific needs in a rural African user’s life. For example, the applications being developed for farmers enable them to receive information pertinent to agricultural methods and techniques. Other applications being pursued include providing a way for sellers and buyers to reach each other. The implementation of these applications depends only on SMS capability because it is more broadly available than IP network access and IP-network capable phones in rural Africa.
Another example is Grameen Foundation’s Grameen Village Phone that enables primarily bottom of the pyramid women in developing countries into entrepreneurs by offering them micro-loans to buy a cell phone. These entreprneurs sell use of the phone to other villagers on a per call basis. Grameen Telecom successfully operates over 200,000 of these village phones in Bangladesh bringing service to many rural subscribers.
An example of a leading mobile industry organization that is seeding the deployment of mobile banking for the unbanked market is GSMA. GSMA recently awarded grants to operators to promote mobile money deployments. The beneficiaries include AXIS in Indonesia, Oi Paggo in Brazil, Roshan in Afghanistan and SMART Communications in the Philippines. These grants will be used to provide basic banking services to rural and remote communities.
Finally, another example is Movius. At Movius, we are developing solutions, such as Virtual Subscriber Service, so that everyone, even people without phones, will have a way to communicate with friends, neighbors and family members. Movius' solutions are helping carriers around the globe meet the needs of their subscribers.