The new Ericsson mobile survey tool (MST) is the first application developed at the Africa Innovation Centre. It will enable operators to create and deploy questionnaires and survey forms without the need for coding or database management.

The MST will initially be piloted in the UN Millennium Villages project. The aim of this dynamic tool is to collect data in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture, business and finance, and government, and to upload it to central databases. The collected data can then be post-processed for various functions within the Millennium Villages project or for other government requirements.

The MST was inspired by the birth and death registration application first trialed by community health workers in Uganda, says Konstantinos Tzingakis, Senior Manager at Ericsson’s sub-Saharan Africa Market Unit. “Based on Ericsson Mobile Service Delivery Platform (MSDP) technology, the MST ensures that the latest applications are used and are accessible to everyone, regardless of the handset that you have,” he says.

“Also, the type of coverage in your area is not a limiting factor. If you are in a low coverage GSM area, you can default to use technologies such as SMS, Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) or interactive voice response (IVR). This bridges the technology gap in rural areas, enabling wider access to mobile communications for all.”

The optional MSDP feature will allow operators to create and deploy applications such as voting services, surveys, games, and competitions through the MSDP administrator interfaces.

“Beyond that we are looking at exposing and opening application programming interfaces so other people can also code and program against them with their own interfaces, plug-ins or tools. This means that developers or the members of the public can write their own programs,” he says.

The gathering of information regarding the health status of livestock is one of the uses of the MST. In Africa there are many people whose livelihoods depend on selling and buying animals.

When the animals become sick, the results are devastating, especially with diseases that affect both animal and human health.  The MST allows for the gathering of information related to animal health in a given area, enabling the Millennium Village coordinators, governments and other agencies to monitor disease outbreaks and treat them before the disease spreads to other animals and people and wipes out entire communities and their livestock.

Tzingakis concludes that for operators the direct benefit of these types of applications will be an increase in network traffic. In addition, commercial applications, such as the sharing of premium content and the push for advertising across the network through the surveys and their responses, will also present revenue opportunities.''

Carmen López-Clavero

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