The document discusses using mobile phones to deliver English language learning content in Africa. It describes a feasibility study conducted on using SMS and IVR platforms. While SMS content was developed, the study found IVR would better support adoption given literacy levels. Challenges included complex implementation and operator costs. Initial pilots in some countries showed interest but failed to result in signed contracts due to questions around content depth and business models. Next steps included improving marketing efforts and exploring enhancing the product to include IVR.

1. English on the Move: Learning
English via Mobile Phones in
Africa
Paul Woods, English Manager
Sub-Saharan Africa, British
Council

3. Why Use Mobile Phones?
• The rationale for using mobile phones as a
distribution medium is due to the wide spread
adoption of GSM services amongst the general
population
• In many Sub-Saharan African countries, there are
more users of mobiles than landlines
• In China there are 60 million more users of mobiles
than landlines

4. Feasibility study
• We commissioned a South African researcher with an
extensive knowledge of the mobile phone market in
the Southern Africa region to carry out a feasibility
study
• At the time, our region consisted of seven countries
in Southern Africa, so the research did not include
East, West or Central African countries which now
form part of the British Council’s SSA region.

5. GSM Network Operators in Southern Africa
Country Operator CDMA GSM Pre Paid Post
paid
Total
Angola Movicell 800MhZ 1,666,200 87,700 1,753,900
Angola Unitel GSM 900 3,575,000 14,000 3,589,000
Angola Unitel WCDMA 4000 4000 8,000
Botswana Mascom
Wireless
GSM 900 862,400 17600 880,000
Botswana Orange
Botswana
GSM
900/1800
578,100 17900 596,000
Lesotho Econet Ezi-cell GSM 900 88,400 3,299 91,600
Lesotho Vodacom
Lesotho
GSM 900 386,700 4,300 391,000

6. Country Operator
CDMA
GSM Pre Paid Post
paid
Total
Mozambique Mcel GSM 900 2,436,000 75,300 2,511,300
Mozambique Vodacom
Mozambique
GSM
900/1800
1,278,800 23,700 1,302,500
Namibia MTC WCDMA 30,000 20,000 50,000
Namibia MTC GSM 900 742,580 45,420 788,000
Namibia Cell One WCDMA 2,450 1,220 3,670
Namibia Cell One GSM 900 41,300 6,400 47,700

7. Country Operator GSM Pre Paid Post paid Total
South Africa Cell C GSM 900/18 3,600,000 1,180,000 4,780,000
South Africa MTN GSM 900/18 12,058,000 2,049,000 14,107,000
South Africa MTN WCDMA 531,000 531,000 1,062,000
South Africa Vodacom GSM 900/18 18,753,100 2,861,600 21,614,700
South Africa Vodacom WCDMA 551,700 640,000 1,191,700
Zambia CelTel GSM 900 1,966,000 1,958,140 7,960
Zambia MTN Zambia GSM 900 348,480 3,520 352,000
Zambia Cell Z GSM 900 71,100 71,100
Zimbabwe EcoNet GSM 900 732,500 7,400 739,900
Zimbabwe Net One GSM 900 220,930 155,830 376,760
Zimbabwe Net Two GSM 900 241,500 750 242,250

9. Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants
• The younger generation are digital natives – they are IT literate
and have grown up with technology as part of their everyday
lives
• They are so familiar with operating systems and types of
functionality they don’t need to learn how to use them – when
something new comes along they take to it naturally
• The older generation are digital immigrants – they need help
and an instruction manual for new technology
• The average young person in the world owns $800 worth of
technology
• The average graduate in the world has spent 5000 hours
reading paper-based books

10. Reaching learners in Africa
• There are around 200 million learners of English in Africa
• If learning content is to be relevant to the lifestyles of the
younger
generation it needs to be delivered via technology
• Research in the UK by BECTA shows that using technology
improves
achievement in almost all national curriculum subjects

11. British Council Global English Products
• There are currently six British Council Global English products
for teachers and six products for learners
• LearnEnglish Mobile is one of the products for Learners

13. The LearnEnglish Mobile Product
The Council experimented with content for
3 types of mobile device:
• Hi-tech (rich media content)
• Medium tech (WAP content)
• Lo-tech (SMS “push” and SMS “pull” content)
In Africa at present, only low-tech devices
are widely available, so this limits the kind of
content which can be delivered.

14. SMS Push – “Everyday English”
• This product was originally launched in Thailand in February 2008.
Users subscribed to the service via their mobile network, and chose
one of three levels – Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. These
were very broad levels that approximate to A, B & C bands in the
Common European Framework (CEF).
• Users in Thailand subscribed for a 15-day free trial, then they were
charged at 29 baht per month (approx. 50p). Continuation of service
was done automatically. Subscribers received a message each month
giving instructions on how to unsubscribe.
• Subscribers received an SMS message every day (at 10 am). These
messages were limited to 160 characters and are divided into six
categories – word/phrase, expression/idiom, collocations, types of
English, learning tips and interesting facts.
• Approximately 500 items were written for each level, so the content
could last indefinitely (there would be no harm in repeating messages
after a year or more).

15. Examples of SMS “push” content
• Word phrases
a factory (n) A building where large amounts of goods are made using
machines. Eg I work in a factory which makes cars.
• Expressions/idioms
to take place (v phrase) To happen. Eg The last football World Cup took place
in Germany.
• Collocations
a business trip (coll) To travel to a different place, Eg in another town or country,
for work. Eg I go on two business trips a month.
• Types of English
sweets (n - UK) candies (n - US)A small piece of sweet food, made of sugar.
Eg She bought a packet of sweets to suck on the journey.
• Learning Tips
Spelling – third person ending in ‘s’: When a verb ends in ‘y’, don’t forget to
change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’. E.g. study - studies.
• Interesting facts
Did you know French was the official language of England for over 600 years?

17. Issues – SMS vs IVR
• The Feasibility Study recommended that, when considering
technology acceptance and adoption in combination with the
income levels, education levels and literacy levels of the
potential audience, the only technology that would support
widespread adoption is voice (IVR) with a limited amount of sms
as an option
• High end technologies such as WAP and Java were not
recommended and would hinder rather than encourage
adoption.
• An IVR platform would be required by network providers that
deployed the English language course - most operators had this
in place already for customer support and other subscriber
services.
• However, the product as developed by British Council for global
use was SMS, rather than IVR-based.

18. Issues - Billing models
• The target market segment we are aiming at is almost entirely
pre-paid (rather than post-paid) with incomes below R2000 per
month.
• The feasibility study recommended a billing model for the
bottom of the pyramid segment, ie people who would spend
money only on the bare necessities to survive. In this case pre-paid
is the only option.

19. Market Analysis - SSA
• The target market for English language services exists in LSM
(Living Standard Measure) 3-6. English is considered an
aspirational language in this segment and is normally only used
by educated higher LSM groups.
• They have no or a basic education, limited verbal skills in
English.
• They are either self employed and trade in basic commodities or
are employed in the unskilled labour market
• An overwhelming majority of subscribers choose pre-paid
subscriptions and buy low end handsets with basic functionality.
• Voice is the primary service with a limited amount of SMS. In
South Africa only 15% of LSM 3-6 use SMS as a means of
communication even though it is less expensive. This is
primarily due to lack of know- how about how to send an SMS,
and in some cases illiteracy

20. Benefits to operators
Anticipated benefits for Mobile Operators include:
• Strategic benefits: sustainable competitive advantage- unique
proposition that takes the industry lead in customer centricity
and provides the OpCO with an alternative acquisition strategy
that will be unexpected and difficult for competitors to copy.
• Corporate Social Responsibility: positioning in the community,
thus moving subscribers up the customer bonding continuum
• Marketing benefits: brand exposure, increased brand equity,
brand and product entrenchment in the consumer space
• Financial benefits: growth in voice and sms traffic (most
markets report between 7% and 14%annual growth in revenue
for similar services) and increased market share.

21. SWOT – Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
• GSM adoption wider than other communication technologies - an ideal
medium to reach underserved target segments
• Combination of the device and British Council brand/quality assured
content – the product was seen in pilots as a valuable learning adjunct
• Unique service, no other language course is available via mobile phone
in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Social upliftment opportunities - will receive support of operators and
governments
Weaknesses
• Logistically complex if a bespoke IVR platform were to be deployed
• Lengthy implementation time for possible new platforms and finding
skills in indigenous and English language proficiencies.
• SMS maybe overly complex for technology-averse subscribers and not
suitable for illiterate subscribers
• Learning value of content is less for the lo-tech product

22. Opportunities and Threats
Opportunities
• Increase the adoption of English language in Sub Saharan Africa
• Wide reach using GSM technology –the product is relevant to the Sub
Saharan African market now
• Service take-up is correlated to GSM penetration, still on an upward
growth curve in Africa
Threats
• Operators won’t subsidise the service and will pass on full license fee
cost plus mark-up to subscribers, presenting a price barrier to the target
segment.
• Service needs to be positioned correctly in relation to consumer needs
and key benefits e.g. aspirational and marketed widely for widespread
take up.
• Operators may demand payments / facilitation fees to deploy services
on their network

24. What success have we had so far?
• I had hoped when I initially offered this presentation to be able to
report that the SMS push Everyday English product had been
adopted in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• But it has proved to be much more difficult marketing the
product than we had initially anticipated.
• We decided to go with the product as it stood, and put out a
tender for an intermediary company to negotiate on our behalf
with network providers in each country. Although there was
initially a favourable response from one company, (the Social
Enterprise Company), in the end none of the companies we
approached decided to bid.

25. Marketing the product
• So we decided to approach network providers in each country on a
one-by-one basis. This country by country approach has presented
some problems.
• We used a Powerpoint presentation provided from the UK to raise
interest at an initial meeting with network marketing managers.
• The approach seemed to be working in Malawi and Mauritius, where
there was considerable enthusiasm initially. In Malawi we reached the
point of drawing up a draft contract with the network operator, but in
both countries we haven’t yet managed to get a signed contract in
place.

26. Why not?
Several possible explanations:
• Some reservations about whether the basic SMS push content is
sufficiently interesting to attract subscribers. You can’t offer a complete
language course in 180 character bite-sized chunks!
• No classroom support applications for the content.
• Reluctance of network providers to pay “up-front” for the use of the
content. (in Thailand the business model was to split income three
ways, between the network, the content aggregator and the British
Council – but based on advice from the Council’s Business Relations
Unit we went for a model where we would sell a licence to use the
content for a fixed period of a year)
• Lack of dedicated British Council EL staff at country level with sufficient
understanding of the product and the technology involved to market it
successfully.

27. What next?
 Step up efforts to market the product and encourage operators to fund
it as part of the corporate social responsibility agenda.
 Ensure British Council English staff in each country are adequately
briefed, feel confident about what they are being asked to promote and
are aware of the marketing tools the British Council has provided for
them on its intranet site.
 Explore with the UK whether the existing lo-tech product needs to be
developed to include an interactive voice response element.