“A lot of the most interesting innovation in mobiles is coming from the South -financial transactions, M-government and so on.” - Ken Banks, FrontlineSMS (www.frontlinesms.com)
African peasants paint their mobile phone number over their front doors. Indian slum dwellers buy SIM cards to use on friends’ handsets. Chinese students spend three months’ allowance on a phone they can use to surf the web. Once almost the exclusive domain of rich countries, the mobile revolution has swept through the developing world. An estimated 3.8 billion people, or half the world’s population, own a mobile, and most of the growth is taking place in the global South. This has deep implications for the media, but the change has been so rapid that it has completely overtaken most media outlets - they are struggling to digest its impact.
The Promise of Ubiquity was commissioned by Internews Europe in 2008, in order to help the media to understand the exciting potential, the incredible challenges provided by the mobile phones (r)evolution, and the perils of refusing to change.
What kind of information services can be carried on the mobile now and in the next five years? Is the mobile viable as an information channel even when many new users may be illiterate?
There may be few right answers, but author John West provides a roadmap on how to navigate through the brave new world of mobile telephony. West suggests a checklist of useful questions and of some best practices which have emerged so far.
The study is the result of a 5-month intensive survey and overview of the mobile for development literature. Through interviews with leaders in the field – software engineers and designers, journalists, and businessmen – the book examines current and future trends, from the dominance of SMS texting to mobile Web, and suggests approaches on how media outlets can negotiate with network operators as well as decide what services to offer.
A note on the Author:
John West, former journalist at Reuter and Internews Europe Executive Director from 2005-2008 is an expert in Middle East issues and in new technologies. He has, in the very early stage, understood the potentials and challenges provided by the new information and communication technologies, for the media sector on one hand and for the global development, on the other hand. He is currently consulting for UNDP in the Middle East.
The Promise of Ubiquity executive summary:
Chapter one: Executive summary
Chapter two: Reach- mobline now matches TV in the South.
This chapter examines the current and future reach of the mobile in the developing world and the factors driving it.
Chapter three: Cases studies:
This Chapter explores how the landscape looks from different vantage points through a series of interviews with leaders in the mobile field – software engineers and designers, journalists, businessmen, representatives of large companies and small involved with everything from multinational news agencies, to community radio in Africa, to mobile start-ups, to activist groups in the Philippines.
Chapter four : The implications for southern media:
This chapter draws some general conclusions out of individual experiences and seeks points of departure into the mobile space for different kinds of media, broadcast and print.
Chapter five: Any handset any network - opportunity is now
This chapter starts from where phone networks are now in the developing world
and what is possible across AHAN – Any Handset, Any Network – to the three billion plus handsets in circulation now.
Chapter six: M-transactions
In this chapter, the author lays out the different structures of emerging Mcommerce, the fact that in developing countries the mobile is fast emerging as a tool for ‘financial inclusion
Chapter seven: Future visions
This chapter explores the opportunities for Global South in the the near future, with a "watch list" of technologies under development of specific relevance to the developing world.
Chapter eight: Media Development - a friendly solution provider
In this chapter, the author discusses the potential role of media development organisations in the mobile phone for development's (r)evolution.
Chapter nine: Country summaries
This final chapter produces summaries of mobile market conditions in 20 countries across the developing world.