You may be wondering what a picture of a non-functioning motorcycle has to do with the BOP and why the driver has not one but two helpers working to get him back on track quickly. It is because this is no ordinary rider- he carries with him the gateway of access to global communication for at least three villages. He is a FirstMile Solutions' Mobile Access Point (MAP) and there are thousands of rural Indians counting on him to deliver their voicemails, texts, emails and web searches to the rest of the world. I had the pleasure of sitting down with FirstMile's CEO, Amir Hasson recently to discuss his business, his dealings with some of the biggest cellular providers in the world, and how he is proving the "last mile of connectivity" to be an outdated concept. Read past the break to see the whole piece- Amir has a brilliant business model that is worth checking out (even Google has taken notice)!

In an article published in last week’s La Republica, the Colombian equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, Jorge Barrios reports that Bancolombia, Colombia’s largest bank, is poised to launch a mobile banking service, which will allow the bank’s clients to make payments, money transfers, and information requests on their cellular phone.  The service, known as Banco Movil, will be made possible by Comcel and Ola, two cellular phone service providers that have partnered with the bank.  

Jorge Londoño Saldarriaga, the president of Bancolombia, told La Republica that the bank’s new service aims to meet the financial needs of Colombia’s citizens that do not have access to more formal banking infrastructure: “The bank will arrive in areas where we don’t have offices or ATMs, but we will take advantage of cellular phone technology which covers all the territory.”