Mobile in Developing Countries:
Top Ten Impact Areas and Opportunities
Dr. Madanmohan Rao
Editor: “Asia Unplugged,”
“AfricaDotEdu”
http://twitter.com/MadanRao

The “8 Cs” of Wireless Ecosystems
 Connectivity
 Content
 Community
 Culture
 Capacity
 Cooperation
 Commerce
 Capital

Dimensions of the Wireless Ecosystem
 Wireless as Instrument
– Providing affordable access to ICTs, local language
content/tools, sectoral benefits (news, education,
healthcare, environment, business, government)
 Wireless as an Industry
– Boosting digital content industries, venture capital,
stockmarkets, technical skills, regulation, global
alliances

Classification of Wireless Information Societies
 Restrictive eg. Myanmar
 Embryonic eg. Afghanistan
 Emerging eg. Nepal
 Negotiating eg. China
 Intermediate eg. India
 Mature eg. Australia
 Advanced eg. Japan, South Korea

“Companies come to India for the cost, they stay
for the quality and they invest for the innovation.”
Dan Scheinman
VP, Cisco

…when the earthquake happened, a mother was
embracing her infant. later the people found out this
infant (it is still sleeping quietly and well), and saw a
mobile in its clothes, but its mother has been dead, she
wrote a short message that was not sent ,"dear baby, if
you are lucky, can live, please remember mother love
you." .......
(excerpt I received via email from a friend in Shanghai)

New Media and Developing Countries:
Top Ten Impact Areas
 Disaster reporting and relief
 Human rights, freedom of expression
 Healthcare (epidemics/pandemics)
 Poverty alleviation
 Improving education, environment
 Social inclusion, access to capital
 Connecting diaspora
 Cultural preservation
 Government transparency, accountability
 Enhancing private sector, SMEs, informal labour

Disaster Reporting and Relief
 Mobile alerting systems (eg. SMS warnings)
 Citizen reporting and collaboration
 RFID tagging on relief shipments
 Mesh, WiMax “in a box”
 Examples
– Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar
– Earthquake in China
– Terrorist attacks in India
– AIDS/HIV in Africa

Mobile and ICT4D in Asia
 Japan: reduce the digital divide (eg. for disabled
citizens)
 China: government concern - use of SMS/blogs for
spreading rumours and political messages
 India: connecting startups with social entrepreneurs
 Philippines: m-payments (remittances)
 Nepal: communicating across mountainous regions
 Bangladesh - Grameen Telephone: shared access +
microfinance (village “phone ladies”)

“The phone has transformed the women farmers'
lives completely - they are able to market their
produce, access information on prices, and it
has made them so confident.”
Gladys Faku
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management

Mobile Activism in Developing Countries
 NGO Breakthrough in Bangalore has SMS HIV/AIDS
helpline for answering queries; also domestic violence
 IKSL.in offers agri "voice SMS" messages and helpline
to Indian farmers in local languages
 Suruk.com offers SMS-based info/rating services for
autorickshaw (tuktuk) drivers
 Informal labour: GreenMango, BabaJobs, CellBazaar
 Greenpeace: SMS to raise funds (India), monitor forest
destruction (Argentina), send climate alerts (Australia)

Startups: Networks, Innovation, Awards
 MobileMonday!
 India: NASSCOM Foundation, MSSRF
 Frost & Sullivan: African Excellence Awards
 South African Innovation Fund

Opportunities: Startups, Services
 Hardware: chips, tags, multiprotocol readers (eg.
Intermec, ThinkMagic)
 Content/service (eg. Yulop)
 Integration (eg. OATsystems)
 Offshoring (eg. TCS, Infosys/OnMobile – India)
 Support services (eg. certification)
 Investors: VC, corporate (eg. UPS Strategic
Enterprise Fund: Savi, Impinj)

Mobile in Developing Countries:
Issues for Entrepreneurs
 Industry lifecycles: size, growth; rural areas
 Getting/publishing case studies and research
 Top-down v/s disruptive
 RoI, metrics
 Localising, globalising
 Alliance strategies
 Dealing with the “big guys” (Reuters Market Light, Nokia
Life Tools, Microsoft OneApp; operators)
 Exit strategies

Your Strategy for Developing Countries:
Recommendations
 „Segmenting‟ the market
– high end, mass market, bottom of the pyramid
 Partnering with developing countries
– R&D, offshore support, in-sourcing, innovation
 Learning about mobile in developing countries
– local partners: MoMo!

Year 2030: Outlook
 Spectrum issues
 e-Waste
 Theoretical frameworks for mobile media
 Innovation: “micro-multinationals”
 Personal knowledge management
 Visioning/scenario strategies
– eg. 20 Year Stepping: 1950, 1970, 1990, 2010, 2030, 2050
 “Silver” technologies and applications
 Emerging economies: markets, partners, competitors

Tweets: http://twitter.com/MadanRao
madan@techsparks.com
digitalnomad@hotmail.com