For people in low-income countries struggling to make a living, a mobile phone helps boost income for households and small businesses; creates jobs; strengthens social networks and decreases the need to travel. Mobile networks also provide direct business opportunities for local entrepreneurs, such as selling the use of a phone, top-up cards, recharging, repairs and retailing. In countries hungry for economic development, the mobile phone will play a vital role in shaping a better future.
Yet one-third of the developing world’s rural population still lack mobile phone coverage. Barriers range from subscribers' inability to afford air time or top-up cards, to lack of basic infrastructure, to the lack of a mobile network. Many operators are not yet convinced that there is a sufficient business proposition to invest in low-income areas. The regulatory environment can also be prohibitive, with high taxes or tariffs slowing growth in subscriptions.
For some users in emerging markets, each phone call is seen as an investment in a better life. This is a fundamental difference between the less and more developed markets. A mobile telephone has considerably greater impact for a poor family than a wealthy one. Ericsson will continue developing cost-efficient and profitable ways of using mobile communications to reach less affluent markets, with solutions that empower people’s lives.
