• Display

an Eldis Resource

This briefing summarises some key issues and research priorities emerging from the workshop on "Mobiles and Development" held at the University of Manchester in May 2007.

Key issues:
• The Mobile Explosion: There are more mobile than fixed lines in the global South. Perhaps three or four times more people in the South have access to mobile services than in the North.

• The Continuing Mobile Divide:There are still global and national inequalities. Fundamental issues – electricity, coverage, affordability – are still access barriers.

• Role of the Private Sector: The state and NGOs have a vital role to play in promoting those aspects of m-development the private sector will not or cannot. However, the m-development activities of the private sector – e.g. m-banking, mobile infrastructure and services – seem to be working better than those of the public sector.

• Making Connections, Flattening Asymmetries: In their role as communication devices, mobiles are making connections for users and flattening asymmetries. For example, linking poor communities to members of the global diaspora for the purposes of remittances.

• Needs and Wants: Development actors often talk about needs of citizens and communities, but not about their wants. Mobile clearly fits into the "wants" category for many.

• Convergence: There are two aspects, both about mobile being able to do what other technologies or services do. First, technically, mobiles can increasingly do what PCs or community radio can do. Second, in relation to socio-economic processes and responsibilities. For example, over mfinance, telecoms and financial regulation are colliding as cell phones become mobile banks using airtime as currency.

• From Communication to Transaction: Mobiles to date have largely been seen as communication devices. Increasingly, though, we will need to see them through a "laptop lens" – as devices that can process data and can handle transactions.

• ICT4D 2.0. If the epitome of ICT4D version 1.0 was the rural telecentre, are we seeing emergence of ICT4D 2.0? Its artefact: the cell phone. Its focus: urban not rural development. Its emerging trend: revival of the Internet as a development tool through GPRS

Research Priorities:

1. Delivering on m-development
2. Understanding social networks
3. Beyond calls and texts- new possibilities?
4. Innovation
5. Design
6. Convergence
7. Environmental implications of phone recycling
8. Conceptualising the artefact

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend