Telecommunications and IT
My friend David, NextBillion reader and BOPreneur, pinged me last night and rightly asked why NextBillion.net has been slower than usual these days, missing a few of big news pieces that relate to the base of the pyramid and development through enterprise. He's right. The truth is Rob and I have been with our hair on fire testing and working on what will very soon be the new face of this website. In fact, if everything goes according to plan, this will be the last post I publish in NextBillion as it looks and feels now! Anyhow, it's Friday and I do want to take the opportunity to point you to a couple of relevant media pieces for you to catch up with this weekend, in case you haven't yet. The first (hat tip, David) is a 14-page special report about the middle classes published in The Economist last week. Why is this relevant to our readers? Well, NextBillion.net is based on the premise that business, enterprise and the profit motive can serve the poor enhancing their dignity and choice so they can climb the ladder up to that level of the pyramid. (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)
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iBoP Asia recently announced the winners of their first small grants competition and the second competition is coming up soon. I wanted to highlight the grants program for our readers at NextBillion, as I know that many of you have the ideas they are looking for. A joint collaboration between the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) in the Philippines and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada, iBoP Asia seeks to advance the research agenda on science and technological innovations for the base of the pyramid in SouthEast Asia and does so through policy advocacy, conferences, small grants competitions, and more. The winners from the first call for proposals can be found on iBoP's website and include Niti Bhan's Emerging Futures Lab, which, as a consultancy for BoP markets, will be looking at payment strategies and practices of the BoP with limited and irregular income. Several of the winners focus on improving farming practices, including the Sub-Plant Protection Department of Angiang Province in Vietnam and the Philippine Rice Research Institute, which focuses on building and sustaining the rice economy in the Philippines, through policy advocacy and providing farmers with greater access to technology. As a BOPreneur living in Nepal, I was grateful to learn about iBoP Asia; an Asian entity such as ASoG that focuses specifically on the BoP in Asia, bringing together multidisciplinary actors across the region, is a welcome addition. I tend to be skeptical of organizations that focus largely on research, but iBoP Asia wants to bridge the research-practice divide with a focus on engaging the public, private, and non-profit sectors in research that leads to better innovations for the BoP. (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)
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February 09, 2009 - 09:00,
The Wall Street Journal
Rural India Snaps Up Mobile Phones
By Eric Bellman
In the village of Karanehalli, a cluster of simple homes around an intersection of two dirt roads about 40 miles from India's high-tech capital of Bangalore, Farmer K.T. Srinivasa doesn't have a toilet for his home or a tractor for his field. But when a red and white cellular tower sprouted in his village, he splurged on a cellphone.
While the way his family threshes rice -- crushing it with a massive stone roller -- hasn't changed for generations, his phone has changed the way he farms. He uses it to decide when to plant and harvest by calling other farmers, to get the best prices for his rice, coconuts and jasmine by calling wholesalers, and to save hours of time waiting on the road for deliveries and pickups that rarely come on time.
"Life is much better with the cellphone," he said from his rice paddy in the shadow of the new tower. "I bring it with me to the fields and anyone can reach me here."Even amid the global economic slowdown, one Indian industry continues to boom: selling cellphones to the rural poor.
Submitted by Al Hammond on February 6, 2009 - 14:36.
Editor's note: Al Hammond, entrepreneur in residence at Ashoka, will write a series of reports documenting his experiences and the learning involved in started a "base of the pyramid" (BoP) healthcare venture to serve developing countries. This is his first report in the "Notes From the Field" series.
There I was, looking over the shoulder of a woman physician, in a unique 400+ seat medical call center in India, as she dealt with a female patient with abdominal pains. The patient was calling from her home on a mobile, had been initially engaged by a trained lay health worker, and then passed on to the doctor. As the doctor asked questions--guided by a software tool called a clinical decision support system--and selected the patient’s answers, the questions on the doctor’s computer screen changed. Within a few minutes, the doctor had isolated the problem, decided that she didn’t need to dispatch an ambulance, selected a medicine, and clicked on another tab that sent an e-prescription by text message to the patient’s phone. The patient can take that message on her mobile to a pharmacy and fill her prescription. The whole process took 3-4 minutes for the patient, and was free (subsidized by the state government). But it also didn’t cost the state much, because it only used a few minutes of the doctor’s time, so that she can deal with more than 100 patients in an 8-hour shift. No clinical office to rent or equip. No patient travel involved. Available when needed, 24-7. And trained lay health workers, paid perhaps a fifth of a doctor’s salary, handle 80% of the calls, so only 20% get passed on to doctors. Thus, in economic terms, a single doctor is in effect overseeing the treatment of more than 500 patients per day. Of course, not all patients have problems treatable remotely—trauma, cancer, heart attacks and others will be referred to hospitals. But for many primary care problems, this is high quality, and very cost-effective, care. (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)
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February 01, 2009 - 23:00,
The Financial Times
India to Follow $2,000 Car with $20 Laptop
The project, backed by New Delhi, would considerably undercut the so-called "$100 laptop", otherwise known as the Children's Machine or XO, that was designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US.
The Children's Machine, which received a cool reception in India, is the centrepiece of the One Laptop Per Child charity initiative launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer scientist and former director of MIT's Media Lab. Intel launched a similar product, called Classmate, in response.
India's $20 laptop would also undercut the EeePC, made by Taiwan's Asustek. The EeePC was the first ultra-cheap, scaled-down laptop (a new category known as a netbook) launched worldwide through commercial channels. It does not have a hard drive and sells for $200-$400.
Submitted by Rob Katz on February 2, 2009 - 08:37.
February 02, 2009 - 08:00,
New York Times
Experiments Bring Internet to Remote African Villages
Submitted by Rob Katz on January 26, 2009 - 11:13.
January 25, 2009 - 11:00,
Trading Markets
India: The Fastest Growing Telecom Market
India has emerged as the fastest growing telecom market in the world, attracting not just global service providers like Britian-based Vodafone but also big handset manufacturers like Finland's Nokia that not too long ago was reluctant to make an entry because of low volumes. For a country that stood at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of telecom penetration a decade ago, 2008 was a watershed when India's subscriber base topped 350 million users to make its network the second largest in the world after China, displacing the US.
Submitted by Rob Katz on January 26, 2009 - 09:37.
Are there really enough profits to make telcos want to focus on the bottom of the pyramid? A new report, released last Monday by the technology market research firm BDA, suggests the answer is no. Before we consider the case closed, let's take a closer look. After all, telecommunications companies have been some of the more successful firms when it comes to focusing on the base of the pyramid. Again and again, we read about big players like Vodafone, Motorola, Hutchinson-Essar, Bharti, MTN, Celtel, Telmex, etc. and their down-market profit strategies. Smaller domestic companies, like Smart and Globe in the Philippines or Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh, also owe much (if not all) of their growth to bottom of the pyramid strategies. BDA's report, 3G and BWA: The Next Frontier, however, argues that low-income customers account for a fraction of telcos' revenue share and profit margin when compared with high-income clients. This chart provides excellent illustration: According to these data, the poor account for 71% of customers but only 15% of profits. Meanwhile, those high-end customers - 1 out of every 10 total clients - account for 45% of profits. Focus on the high-end, argues BDA - and with numbers like that, it's hard to argue! But look closer, and you'll see there are shades of grey in this yellow chart. Here are 3 reasons why telcos should heed BDA's advice with a grain of salt and not abandon their (profitable) bottom of the pyramid strategies just yet: (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)
Submitted by Rob Katz on January 23, 2009 - 17:09.
Position: Community Manager Location: Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA Organization: Inveneo is a non-profit social enterprise whose mission is to get the tools of ICT into the hands of organizations and people who need them most: those in remote and rural communities in the developing world. To do this, Inveneo creates and sells highly affordable and sustainable ICTs that are specifically designed for organizations -- governments, NGOs, private enterprises -- that serve these rural communities with vital services that include education, healthcare, economic development, relief and telecenters. More information on Inveneo can be found on their website. Description: Inveneo has developed a robust network of 38 local partners in 13 countries across Africa, and will be adding 25+ partners in Africa and Asia in 2009. These local partners are small and medium sized ICT businesses that are trained and certified on Inveneo's methodologies to sell, deploy, and maintain appropriate solutions for rural and underserved communities. To amplify local partner capacity to identify, deploy, and sustain ICT solutions, the Community Manager will supervise the implementation of an online community to increase inter-ICIP communication, expand the ICT expert community they can rely on, and increase the profile of the local partners and Inveneo in both international and local country technology and practitioner communities. (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)
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Submitted by Rob Katz on January 22, 2009 - 17:11.
January 22, 2009 - 17:00,
Business Standard
Sunil Jain: Top of the pyramid
Management guru CK Prahalad popularised the concept of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), and among others, the country's top mobile phone players seem to be taking this quite seriously given how they’re wooing BOP customers. It is, however, not quite clear how this strategy will pay off.
According to a study by consulting firm BDA with chamber of commerce Ficci, the top 9 per cent of mobile phone users in India contribute 29 per cent to industry’s revenues and 45 per cent of profits; the next 20 per cent of subscribers contribute 44 per cent to revenues and 40 per cent to profits.
The lower end of the pyramid — 71 per cent of subscribers — contributes a mere 27 per cent to revenues and an even smaller 15 per cent to profits. With the collapse in average revenues per user (Arpu) expected to be staved off only with the introduction of 3G services which are to be used by the top 12-13 per cent of users, the bulk of the profit will continue to come from high-end users. Given this reality, and with number portability around the corner, the real battle has to be for the top-end customers.
Submitted by Rob Katz on January 22, 2009 - 11:47.
January 11, 2009 - 11:00,
Huffington Post
How Access to Information Can Tackle Poverty and Pollution
By Andy Posner
What I realized, then, is that the poor need access to information far more urgently than they need handouts and subsidies. Still, that's a risky statement to make, as many will argue that given a choice between, say, a cell phone and a meal, the vast majority of poor people will choose the meal. However, a fascinating NY Times article from last year titled 'Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?,' argues that, given precisely that choice, most will choose the phone. The article cites a study by the World Resources Institute, a "Washington-based environmental research group [which] published a report with the International Finance Corporation entitled "The Next Four Billion." The fascinating study "looked at, among other things, how poor people living in developing countries spent their money" and found that:
even very poor families invested a significant amount of money in the I.C.T. category -- information-communication technology, which, according to Al Hammond, the study's principal author, can include money spent on computers or land-line phones, but in this segment of the population that's almost never the case. What they're buying, he says, are cellphones and airtime, usually in the form of prepaid cards. Even more telling is the finding that as a family's income grows -- from $1 per day to $4, for example -- their spending on I.C.T. increases faster than spending in any other category, including health, education and housing. "It's really quite striking," Hammond says. "What people are voting for with their pocketbooks, as soon as they have more money and even before their basic needs are met, is telecommunications."
January 07, 2009 - 13:00,
Financial Times
A call to South Africa's masses
There is a faint air of the evangelical preacher about Brian Richardson, the 52-year-old chief executive and co-founder of Wizzit, a South African company that has become a pioneer in the business of mobile banking.
It is not just his austere uniform - smart black slacks and open-necked black shirt, its cuffs emblazoned with the company's logo. As he explains his determination to challenge conventional banking prejudices and "bring affordable financial services to the mass market", Mr Richardson is clearly an entrepreneur with a mission.
Once a marketing executive for the South African division of Barclays, he is sure that the "bureaucratic and process-driven style" of leading South African banks blinds them to a huge commercial opportunity: selling to the millions of black South Africans who 14 years after the end of apartheid remain rooted to the bottom of the country's socioeconomic pyramid.
 I recently read an article titled Negroponte - missionary not manufacturer, in which the author makes the argument that, well, Nicholas Negroponte - founder and Chairman of the One Laptop Per Child project - is a missionary, not a manufacturer. I think this is a very interesting point and caused me to ponder the definition of success.
Negroponte has been pilloried in the press, blogosphere and by analysts around the world, and even to an extent by me. You can see this in a three part blog posting that I wrote that starts here.
While some of the criticism may be valid, if you actually change the perspective of how you view his role ... from someone that is trying to manufacture and sell millions of laptops, to someone that has a vision of a computer as a key tool for accelerating learning and technology adoption, then his cause would be seen in a different light. And that is exactly why the world embraced him in 2005 when he first introduced his OLPC project.
(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)
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Submitted by Rob Katz on December 19, 2008 - 11:43.
December 19, 2008 - 11:00,
BBC
Connecting the Next Billion Users
Click reporter David Reid travelled to Hyderabad for the Internet Governance Forum - where governments and net users discuss what's next for the web.
The talk at the IGF was about how to get the net's next billion users online and how it can aid economic development.
"It is not just about surfing the internet faster and downloading movies, this is actually one of the most vital and important economic tools of the twenty first century," said Marcus Courtney from Uni Global Union, which represents more than 900 trade unions globally.
He said the internet "can be an economic development tool" provided fundamental human rights are recognised.
Submitted by Rob Katz on December 8, 2008 - 16:26.
December 08, 2008 - 16:00,
Wall Street Journal
Vodafone, Western Union Offer Transfers Via Cell
By AMOL SHARMA
Vodafone Group PLC plans to announce a partnership Monday with Western Union Co. to allow international money transfers via mobile phones, as the wireless carrier seeks to tap into the increasing flow of cross-border remittances.
The companies are initially launching a pilot program that will allow residents of Reading in the United Kingdom to send money to family members and friends in Kenya, where Vodafone is the 40% owner of local wireless operator Safaricom Ltd. If that program is successful, the companies will expand it to other countries.
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