September 2007, id21 insights, Issue #69

Mobile phones and development

The future in new hands?

'Explosive' is the only way to describe mobile phone growth. Half the world's 6.5 billion people now use a mobile (up from two billion just two years ago). There are more than twice as many mobile owners in developing countries as in industrialised countries. Subscriber growth rates in developing countries are 25 percent per year – and double that in Africa.

More and more development workers tell stories of mobile surprises – not just who is using them, and where they are using them, but also how they are using them. Through mobiles, the first digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) have reached poor households and communities. In less than a generation, the majority of poor people will have access to mobile phones and services.

What difference will this make? Mobile ownership brings two types of benefits.

A mobile phone seller at the Souk el Goma'a, Cairo's Friday market. Growth trends of mobile phones in developing countries have exceeded all expectations. Experts had estimated that there would be 67 million mobile phones in Africa by 2005; the actual figure was 137 million – more than double the estimate. © Mark Henley/Panos Pictures, 2004

Other articles in this issue:

Micro-enterprise and the 'mobile divide'

Mobile phones are starting to penetrate the informal sector in developing countries. Do they bring benefits? Reinforce inequalities? Both?

'Mobile Ladies' in Bangladesh

Villagers often lack information they need to help improve their livelihoods. Such information exists but is often denied to them by the lack of connection to mainstream information systems. Mobile phones can solve this problem.

Mobiles reinforce unequal gender relations in Zambia

Mobile phones affect more than just communications. They can also reinforce society's unequal power relations. A three-year study in Zambia looks at this, partly in terms of relationships between husbands and wives.

Beyond the three billion mark

In mid-2007, we passed the symbolic mark of three billion mobile phones in use around the world. How did we get here? And how will we reach the next three billion users?

M-banking

For many people across the developing world, storing or sending small sums of money is economically impractical. This is due to the high cost and inaccessibility of banks and formal financial services. Recently, however, telecommunications providers, banks, and other companies have begun offering a variety of financial services via a basic mobile phone handset.

Mobiles and impoverished households in Jamaica

How do mobile phones affect low income households? Has this technology spread so far that it can now create a development impact right down to the poorest families?

Big versus small innovation

While 'big innovation' around mobiles may struggle in developing countries, 'small innovation' is booming.

Good practice for mobiles and health

Mobile information and communication technologies (ICTs) are not just phones. In healthcare, personal digital assistants (PDAs) – small hand-held computing devices – are also used.

From surveillance to 'sousveillance' in elections

New technologies are often associated with state surveillance of citizens. Mobile phones are no exception.

Mobile networks at the centre of infrastructure

Reflecting Northern models, mobile telecommunications in developing countries were initially conceived as secondary to fixed lines.

Useful web links

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