Cell phones are becoming ubiquitous, even in underdeveloped countries. This unprecedented penetration by a communications technology is clearly changing the face of the developing world for the better -- in some cases, in ways that not even the most visionary leaders anticipated.
"Cell phones are the main communication tools now in many poor countries," said Mongi Hamdi, Head of the Science, Technology and Internet and Communications Technology branch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. One of the goals of the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society, Hamdi said, is to see that half of the world's population has access to the Internet and telecommunications by 2015. Already, in 2008, this target has been met through cell phones. Today, nearly half of the world's population has access to a telephone.
In the developing world, Hamdi said, "there are now estimated to be eight times as many mobile phones as fixed lines, three times as many mobile phones as personal computers, and nearly twice as many mobile phones as TV sets." Hamadoun Toure, the secretary-general for the United Nations International Telegraph Union said that there are over 60 million subscribers in Africa now. "Africa today is the most wireless continent." China has over 8 million new mobile phone subscribers a month, and India has more than 7 million new subscribers a month.
This mass proliferation of mobile phones is improving the quality of life for impoverished people in multiple ways. Aside from the obvious advantage of facilitating communication, access to this technology is increasing income, improving health and safety, making life more convenient, and increasing the GDP of entire countries. In the words of Iqbal Quadir, director of MIT's Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, "These communication devices are delivering the fruit of the digital revolution to the poorest people in the world." Here's our top 10 list of what the technology does for people living in developing nations:
1. Improves profits for farmers and business owners
Instead of having to depend on a middleman to determine what price to sell, say, bananas, chickens, or some other commodity, farmers can now use a cell phone to call the market and get a price. This improved market information increases profits and avoids reliance on unscrupulous middlemen who might take advantage of struggling suppliers. On a more formalized basis, TradeNet, now operating in 17 countries, provides information about agricultural goods via cell phone for people wanting to sell or buy commodities. TradeNet provides the basic information for free but charges for tailored and more sophisticated services to remain financially sustainable in the long-term.
2. Facilitates a consumer society
Haitians who have access to motor vehicles can call ahead to check on product availability, rather than spending $13 a gallon on gas to make a three-hour trip to town, only to find that the item they needed is not there. In the town of Jeremie, Haiti, it's not unusual to see women riding their mules to town with their cell phones to their ears, checking on the weather or the prices of goods in town. In Bangladesh, Cellbazaar is sort of a mobile EBay, listing the cell phone numbers of those who are looking to buy or sell various items. A recent day's listings on the site, which bills itself as "a market in your pocket," offered browsers everything from rice and used computer parts to tutoring services and a camel (price: 150,000 Bangladeshi taka).
3. Provides less expensive access to communication
Those who cannot afford land lines can opt for mobile phones with prepay cards or use the cell phone service provided by local Internet cafes or vendors who sell their personal cell phone minutes to others. Because in many poor countries, the wait for a prohibitively expensive land line can take years and may even require political connections, mobile phones have greatly expanded access to phone technology.
4. Replaces the Internet for those who cannot afford computers
People in developing countries around the world now rely on text messaging on their mobiles to stay in touch. Hamdi said that while the West relies mainly on e-mail and the Internet, in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, cell phones effectively are the Internet. People who do not have access to desktop or laptop computers simply use text messages to stay in touch or access a wide variety of data services, including financial transactions, news and market price updates. Twice as many people in developing countries now use text messaging as e-mail.
5. Makes banking services accessible
In Kenya, owners of tiny, mom-and-pop businesses who don't have access to commercial banking can gain access to credit via cell phones. In South Africa, Mongi said, a service called Wizzit allows anybody with a mobile phone to make person-to-person payments, transfers and pre-paid purchases without a bank account. There is no monthly fee -- people only pay for transactions they execute. In Zambia and a number of other countries, cell phones are being used to pay electricity bills by texting the appropriate information. And in Bengladesh and many African nations, locals have taken to wiring money via a scheme where they turn over minutes to a cell phone vendor, who in turn gives the equivalent amount of cash to a designated individual, minus a small fee.
"In the years to come, the mobile phone will be able to do everything from simple payments in a shop to transferring money to your kids somewhere to paying for parking," said Toure. "There are so many new applications that are coming up -- we haven't seen anything yet. People are very creative, and mobile banking was born in Africa and used for the first time in Kenya to transfer money to people in small amounts. These are the types of applications that are meeting the needs of the real people [out] there. "
6. Circumvents the frustrations of other infrastructure
Cell phone service is even more necessary and more useful in undeveloped countries, said Quadir, because the condition of the rest of the infrastructure is so poor. For instance, as the cost of building highways has gone up, the cost of phone service is decreasing, making it easier to enhance the telecommunications sector even when other infrastructure projects are out of reach.
7. Improves public health
In South Africa, mobile phones are used also to combat epidemics such as AIDS or malaria. Patients can access doctors or national AIDS hotlines and receive text messages highlighting numbers to call for medicines and to arrange for testing. Nurses also text-message tuberculosis and AIDS patients to remind them to take their medication, thereby boosting recovery rates of patients and reducing financial costs and the burden on the public healthcare system as a whole. In Bangladesh, Nigeria, and many other countries, health care providers are developing 24-hour phone systems: Patients call and describe their particular health concern, and they are then routed to doctors who sign up for particular times when they are available to provide pro bono advice to needy patients.
8. Boosts national productivity
An oft-quoted 2005 study from the London Business School found that when 10 more people out of 100 in developing countries start using cell phones, the GDP rises by .59 percent per capita. Some studies have found an even higher rise in GDP, according to Iqbal Quadir, who in 1996 founded the Bengladeshi cell phone company Grameen Phone, which now has more than 20 million subscribers. "Connectivity is productivity," said Quadir. Because working with others requires collaboration, "If we cannot connect with people, we simply operate more inefficiently. Removal of inefficiency means increase of productivity. "
9. Helps vulnerable populations cope with natural disasters
"When there is a disaster or flood, the usage of telephones goes up in the affected areas. People try to help each other out or communicate for help," said Quadir. Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the United Nations in 2006 set up an early warning system in the Indian Ocean. When the system's sensors detect earthquake and tidal activity, warnings can be sent via cell phones and text messages to people in affected areas. Had the system been in place prior to the tsunami, it would have saved thousands of lives.
10. Creates new jobs and business opportunities
In Mongolia, the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union left many state workers without jobs, prompting large numbers to move to the capital of Ulaan-Bataar. Now tens of thousands of Mongolians are making a living selling cell phone minutes on the streets to pedestrians, taxi drivers, and others who cannot afford their own phones, according to Lisa Parks, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC-Santa Barbara. A similar phenomenon is occurring in Egypt and Morocco. In developing countries, said Toure, job creation in the mobile industry has been second to none, from people making a living by using cell phones to sell cars on the street to large corporations creating jobs for cell phone engineers. "Mobile phone vendors in Legos, Nigeria, are enabling people to make phone calls, and they're making money out of it," he said. "Sometimes it's a small [amount], but they make a living at it, and they're not begging in the street anymore, and that's what counts. "
