Dorcas Adeyemi had never even spoken to her grandchildren until she got to make a call on a mobile phone.

“My strongest memory of a mobile phone would be when I used one to call my grandchildren in South Africa for the first time," says 74-year-old Dorcas from her home in Lagos, Nigeria.

“They were born and raised there. I had never seen them before but I was able to talk to them as if they were here with me."

Dorcas is one of billions of people who have got access to mobile communications for the first time over the past decade. For many of these people, the mobile phone has been the first form of telecommunication for entire communities, opening up a wealth of possibilities in personal contacts, business opportunities and social benefits.

Mobile phone subscriptions reached the 4 billion milestone in 2008, up from 2.7 billion in 2006. The vast majority of growth in subscriber numbers is happening in emerging economies.

The arrival of mobile communication is bringing countless benefits to people and their societies, including:

• Mobile phones help generate income by enabling small-business entrepreneurs to reach out to more customers, providing better service and greater efficiency.
• Mobile phones enable direct and private contact between people. They help build stronger social networks by providing cost-effective ways of staying in touch with family and friends.
• In high-growth markets, mobile phones are a sign of modernity, promising improved opportunities for work, social contact, and income.

Ericsson works actively to support the growth of telecom services in emerging economies, many of which face specific challenges.

In some, a lack of infrastructure means mobile networks have to be built from the ground up. Base stations may be located in remote regions, well out of the range of power grids and difficult to reach. Innovative solutions – such as hybrid power and our energy-efficient RBS 2216 base station – reduce the network’s dependence on power, meaning operators can service more remote areas and reach more people. Advanced radio network design, sometimes using fewer, larger sites, and sophisticated cell-planning, can make all the difference in sparsely populated regions.

Forward-thinking charging and billing systems can make telecommunications affordable to people in emerging markets, giving subscribers control over their communications costs and strengthening operators’ business offerings. Pre-paid and post-paid options together with electronic top-ups build a solid foundation for success. We also help operators with advanced approaches, such as our Dynamic Discount Solution, which lets them attract callers during low-traffic periods, optimizing network use and giving subscribers more ways to save money when they communicate.

There are some things that even Ericsson can’t solve, however. As much as she loves talking to her grandchildren, Dorcas finds her phone annoying at times. "It can be a pest. It chooses the wrong moments to ring, but I still love it. I sometimes call it ’Okere’ (squirrel) because of the funny ringtones that remind me of the little animals that live in the palm trees."

"My dad had to leave the country unexpectedly on business. He called to tell me he was leaving the next day but his spending money was still with me in Quezon Province. We were so thankful for mobile money because I could send it to him in just one second. It is such a simple process; it always makes my family feel so secure."

Armiel Azul, 23, is business operations manager for Rhudarda, a rural multi-purpose cooperative in the Philippines. Along with 90 percent of the country’s population of 90 million, he has no access to bank accounts. With 11 million Filipinos working abroad, a lot of people need to send money home — but it hasn’t always been easy.

When SMART Money, owned by top Philippine telecom operator SMART, launched international mobile-money transactions using SMS codes in December 2000, it quickly became a leader in providing financial transactions over cellular networks.

Mobile money gives people access to cash via a mobile phone, quickly. For people living in developing nations, unable to access regular bank accounts, commonly referred to as "the unbanked", mobile money services give them a safe way to save and transfer money without the risks that come with cash.

The biggest breakthrough for mobile money has been M-PESA in Kenya. Of the country’s 18.3 million mobile phone users, nearly 7 million use M-PESA, launched in early 2007 by Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile operator.

Mobile money is just one way that mobile communications growth is increasing security and improving people’s quality of life. There were 4.1 billion mobile subscriptions at the end of 2008, up from 1.3 billion in 2002, a recent International Telecommunication Union report said, with two-thirds of them in developing countries. An increase of 10 percentage points in mobile phone penetration leads to a 0.8 percent increase in a developing country’s GDP, according to the World Bank.

And services such as mobile money make a huge difference to people’s lives, as Armiel knows well: "It makes business transactions with suppliers easier and hassle-free."

"I use my SMART Money to pay my bills each month and send my brother's allowances. During emergencies, within a second, I can transfer money to my friends and relatives in need.

"It makes me feel secure wherever I go."

About 2500 kilometers separate Jackie Lee from her family and friends, but distance is no obstacle when it comes to staying in touch. The 23-year-old uses her video blog and regular social-media updates to keep family and friends in Dallas, Texas informed about her life in New York City.

Since graduating from university and moving across the United States a year and a half ago, Jackie has only visited home twice but calls often. But it’s the ability to share the details – encounters and experiences – that really keep them in close contact. A self-proclaimed Twitter and Facebook "addict", Jackie can post up-to-the-minute snippets of her life in an instant – sometimes while on the move.

"I tweet regularly via my mobile phone about anything – funny or sentimental experiences and memories I want to share and keep," she says.

Jackie also uses her mobile phone to film inspiring sights while out and about, uploading them almost instantaneously to her blog, which is especially useful when sharing her travel memories.

"Sharing these videos makes my family and friends feel as if they were there with me. When I post a video on my blog, my family can see me instead of just hearing my voice, and that brings them that much closer," she says.

When Jackie started her blog eight years ago, blogging was a relatively obscure activity. But today, it is an integral part of the way we communicate, disseminate information and stay in touch.

The networks we are building today are helping change the way the world communicates. A recent Nielsen report on social networking’s new global footprint found that blogs and social networks are now the fourth most popular online activity, ahead of personal e-mail. And the time spent on these sites is growing dramatically, changing the way we behave, share and interact in our daily lives.

Take Jackie as an example. There’s not a day that goes by where she’s not on Facebook – which recently surpassed the 300 million-user mark – or Twitter, a microblogging site she updates while on the move using a mobile broadband connection.

We are all communicating more, sharing our lives with the people we care about, the people we work with, and friends we haven’t yet met. It’s all about keeping in touch, and now that means sharing much more than words.

Pavol Barát is helping save lives every day, getting emergency services to where they are needed – fast. When a rapid response can be a matter of life or death, communications simply have to be reliable and efficient every time. There is no room for error.

A shift manager at one of Slovakia’s emergency service “112” operation centers, Pavol oversees the emergency phone operators and monitors emergencies around the capital, Bratislava.

The system used here is the part of the Ministry of the Interior’s efforts to make emergency services – fire brigade, ambulance and police – more efficient. Slovakia has several different emergency numbers, such as 158 for police, 155 for ambulance services and 150 for the fire brigade. A new solution bringing all emergency services under the number 112 is making them all faster and more efficient.

“Features such as location-based services are a huge advantage,” Pavol says. “With applications like GiS, we can see where the call is coming from and which road is the quickest way to the incident. We monitor and coordinate the responses as incidents occur. And witnesses or callers in distress can be directly connected to the correct emergency service.”

Slovakia is a multicultural country with several regions and four main languages, something that the integrated 112 system can help with, Pavol says. “We can monitor where the call is coming from and refer the call to one of our operators who speaks that language. And we have operators with very diverse language skills. So of course it has made work easier for us, but more importantly, life safer for Slovakians. They receive the right assistance more quickly.”

Slovakia is using the Ericsson Emergency Response solution, based on our CoordCom product. It can be tailored for any need, letting emergency dispatchers relay crucial information in real time to everyone involved.

Denisa Saková, a director at the Department of Informatics, Telecommunications & Security with Slovakia’s Ministry of Interior, worked with us to implement the solution.

“The 112 system saves lives and there is simply no room for error,” she says.

Ericsson immediately picked up on our concerns and demands, and was involved in all aspects of the implementation, developing a strategy, remaining in daily contact to make improvements and training our people onsite.

”We now have eight operation centers around the country, and they are making life better for Slovakians.”

When an earthquake struck Maggie Chen’s office building in Chengdu, she fled taking only her mobile phone with her. "The first thing I did was call my husband," she says. "I would have felt helpless and frightened if I couldn’t contact my family."

Maggie, a 31-year-old China Mobile subscriber, was one of millions affected by the Sichuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, one of the worst earthquakes in China’s history. It left nearly 70,000 people dead and more than 5 million homeless.

Bo Deng, Service Delivery Manager at Ericsson was at a workshop in Chengdu that day. He was soon to become a hero, keeping the phone network up and running throughout the devastation.

The epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake was 80km northwest of the network operations center that we run for China Mobile in Chengdu. Bo realized he had to act quickly. Unable to reach his own family, he concentrated on getting across town to the Sichuan Mobile Operation and Maintenance Center – the communications hub for 10 million China Mobile subscribers.

He and his colleagues piled into a car to find a route around the congested traffic to get across town. "People were rushing to leave the city, and taxis and buses were stopped," Bo says. "It took more than an hour to travel the 40km to the center."

Their efforts in the first critical hours after the quake ensured that people could call for help on their mobiles, or check on their loved ones.

"When we arrived at the center, we couldn’t be sure of the building’s stability, so we connected to our exchange using a wireless LAN outside," Bo says. All the voice network exchanges kept running normally. "The system never went down, despite extreme network traffic."

In the weeks that followed, Bo helped with rescue efforts and stayed on duty at the operations center. "Uninterrupted communication was important to save lives and helped speed up the rescue operation," he says.

Juan Liu, a manager for Mianyang prefecture, which sustained some of the worst losses in the region, says a functioning mobile network was essential in coordinating the response: "I relied on the network to receive orders from rescue headquarters and receive messages or calls from anyone who needed help."

She used her mobile phone constantly during the crisis. Communications were vital for everyone. "The first thing survivors want to do is to contact their family," she says.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Sports fanatic Roger Tilzey always follows the big sporting events wherever and whenever he is – on his mobile phone as he travels or when he is at work. There are a few highlights on the horizon, especially the London 2012 Olympics. But one just around the corner has grabbed his attention: the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with roughly a ninth of the world’s population watching the final of the 2006 tournament. Roger followed the matches in that tournament on his home TV or out with friends.

But life has changed for Roger in the nearly-four years since the last World Cup: he has young children; his job is increasingly demanding; and he has to travel more often. How can he keep track of his favorite team in a way that fits his mobile lifestyle while maintaining the high quality he is used to at home?

More and more, sports viewers are looking to their mobile phones as a way to keep track of their favorite game. And at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, video content will be produced with the mobile viewer in mind. Instead of repurposing and reproducing video produced for television, a mobile video stream will be available that takes into account a phone’s limitations.

But it’s not just about video – it’s about having a comprehensive package. Roger can get an SMS or MMS when someone scores a goal or is sent off, and the video will let viewers see the action almost-live. There will also be archived material from every World Cup as well official downloads and FIFA World Cup news, results and stats.

Roger will have his own personalized FIFA World Cup experience, choosing the teams he wants to follow and the games for which he wants to receive alerts. He will be able to watch more than just his favorite teams – he’ll also be able to view exclusive content, such as footage of his team warming up before a match.

Ericsson, the preferred provider for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the mobile space, will make it easy for Roger to get the content that matters to him. We will provide a full back-end and front-end solution to manage the content sports fans want, from creation and production, to global delivery to each licensee, reliably and with a focus on quality.

Sports fans are coming to expect this level of functionality and service as standard. By the time the London Olympics come around in 2012, you can bet we’ll all be getting a medal-winning mobile performance.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Camilla Sahlén is always on the move. Her job as a project design manager with Skanska Sweden means she is constantly traveling between construction sites. And she always needs the latest information. Mobile broadband ensures she has all the facts she needs, wherever she is.

Skanska, a Swedish construction company, has more than 3500 projects going on around the country. Connecting its workforce using mobile broadband saves the company time and money – and makes life a lot easier for its employees. Accessing supplier, procurement and business systems is easy and can be done from wherever you are.

Being connected makes it easier for Camilla to work as she travels from one site to the next. "I always have my information with me in my laptop, or on a network that I can connect to wherever I am," she says.

This freedom to work anywhere cuts down lead times and makes her work day more efficient: Camilla doesn’t need to get back to her desk to send off a request, or to check when supplies should arrive.

Mobile broadband, based on HSPA, is what lets Camilla solve problems and head off potential issues while standing in a gravel pit. Skanska has been using mobile broadband for more than a year and says it provides significant savings over other forms of information access.

Skanska is in good company. A recent survey, commissioned by the GSMA, shows the growing popularity of HSPA mobile broadband and the enormous potential for further expansion. Of the 1000 enterprises surveyed in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, 36 percent rely on HSPA to connect their employees.

More than 70 percent of the companies surveyed said they provide their employees with laptops, virtual private network (VPN) access and other remote access technologies. Built-in HSPA modules ensure a laptop can connect to systems and transfer information securely.

At Ericsson, we are paving the way to more freedom and flexibility for enterprises and employees with our HSPA solutions – with everything from imbedded HSPA modules for laptops to complete HSPA networks, and advanced enterprise applications.

We are helping people such as Camilla build for the future, based on mobile broadband.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Jeanne D’Arc Mukamuligo is one of 200 women weaving baskets for the Imasirire cooperative in Rwanda. She used to travel 40km just to purchase materials for her business. With mobile broadband in her village of Mayange, Jeanne can now order things online, saving time and money.

"Before I had internet access, I spent a lot of time and money on traveling every month," she says. "Internet access also helps me develop the business because I can e-mail and share information with clients from all over the world."

The basket-weaving business provides the women in the village with additional income for their families and is helping to raise living standards in the community. Mayange is part of the Millennium Villages project, fighting poverty at village-level through community-led development.

Mobile broadband connections, such as the one in Mayange, make geographical isolation less of a barrier to social and economic inclusion. The internet empowers people by providing access to knowledge and information that can help them learn, set up or expand a business, improve farming techniques, find a job and, in the long run, develop their communities.

Themba Khumalo, CEO of MTN Rwanda, says: "Access to mobile communication can have vast economic and social impacts for people living in developing countries. The creation of local, sustainable businesses provides a platform for stable economic growth that can greatly help reduce poverty."

Mobile broadband has great potential in emerging markets, bringing access and speed where other solutions can’t. HSPA provides full coverage, with seamless fall-back to other technologies in the 3GSM family of standards (including EDGE and GPRS). The 3GSM family is global, so it offers major economies of scale for systems, services and devices.

HSPA is the world’s dominant mobile broadband technology launched on more than 300 networks around the world with current speeds of up to 21Mbps. With more than 1600 HSPA-enabled devices on the market, it is the fastest-adopted mobile technology in history.

Ericsson’s WCDMA/HSPA offering allows service providers to deliver a true broadband experience to any device, anywhere, at any time.

The little shop in Nairobi, Kenya, has the daily necessities for many people in the neighborhood and an item can run out quickly. For Fredrick, business has always meant spending much of his time walking to wholesalers to order and pick up goods. Now, however, things have changed.

Fredrick runs a small general store where he sells supplies such as flour, sugar, paraffin, cooking fat and bread. Several times a week he makes orders from wholesalers to make sure he's got the supplies his customers want. Until recently, that meant closing the shop, which took up valuable business hours.

Mobile communication has helped Fredrick improve his business. "Now I can call the wholesalers, have the items delivered and keep the shop open, which means I am not losing any business," he says.

Fredrick says mobile communications have also helped him improve his customer service. "If a customer wants something which I don’t have, I can order it and give the customer a call once it has arrived to the shop. The mobile phone has really helped me become more profitable."

The commercial advantages of being connected have been known around much of the developed world for decades, and are now making their effects felt in emerging economies, where the positive effects are even greater. A recent World Bank report shows that a 10 percent increase in mobile communication adds 0.8 percent to GDP in developing countries.

Kenya has a population of over 39 million, who speak more than 60 languages. About 80 percent of the population live in rural areas. Communication here is vital. In the village of Dertu, for example, where Ericsson has supplied reliable and affordable mobile communication, 1,200 calls and 3,000 minutes of airtime daily have been registered among its population of 5,000.

In remote rural areas of Venezuela, getting a blood sample to the medical center for a malaria test used to take one week by boat and then hours by car. Now, using telemedicine, it is possible to get the results the same day.

Dr. Tomas Sanabria, director of the Venezuelan health care foundation Fundaciòn Maniapure, says information and communication technologies (ICT) are making a huge difference to medical care in isolated villages.

"In the La Milagrosa Medical Center in the remote region of Maniapure, for example, telemedicine has allowed patients to directly benefit from specialist support and coordination in their clinical care," he says.

Sanabria says telemedicine has provided the medical center's health professionals not only with internet access to medical libraries around the world, but also direct access to specialists at the tertiary care center of Hospital Centro Médico of Caracas through the transfer of images.

These uses of telemedicine mean that patients can be treated locally, and when needed, they can also be referred for further evaluation and care.

Sanabria cites a recent case involving an 8-year-old girl suffering from shortness of breath, fatigue and growth delay. The case notes, together with the ECG and x-ray results were sent to the referral hospital via the internet. The medical team at La Milagrosa was then able to discuss the information with the pediatric cardiac unit, resulting in a decision to operate that saved the girl’s life.

"Thanks to telemedicine the child only had to stay in Caracas for a short period, as the doctors who conducted the surgery were able to find out about her condition and medical history beforehand,” Sanabria says. “We were also able to save a lot on resources, and avoided endless waiting and frustration on the part of both the patient and health personnel."

Pedro Filizzola, who is responsible for managing customer solutions at Ericsson Venezuela, says: "This is just the beginning of an experience that opens new horizons in medical care and which can be useful as a reference model to be copied, improved and expanded to other remote areas in the country."

Filizzola also says that while the technical requirements for the exchange of medical information are minimal, the benefits are wide ranging as the technology can deliver medical care to patients wherever they are.

Ericsson is supporting the work of Fundaciòn Maniapure to promote and expand the use of telemedicine applications over broadband-enabled mobile networks. This project is part of the company’s work to support the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Telemedicine brings benefits to health professionals, students, patients and medical institutions.

For health personnel, ICT can:

• Benefit medical practitioners and students in remote areas through exchange of information between primary and specialty care
• Enable practitioners to obtain a second opinion to help with diagnosis
• Strengthen cooperation between health professionals
• Improve coordination
• Optimize the administrative management of patients (for example by coordinating requests for consultations or tests)
• Provide tools to support decision making and clinical management
• Generate reports that can be used as a form of distance education.

For patients, ICT can:

• Improve the quality of health care
• Reduce costs and unnecessary travel.

About Fundación Proyecto Maniapure

The Venezuelan health care foundation works to support and provide health care services, telemedicine and education to a large region of the Bolivar state. The population in this region is made up of predominantly Panapare Indians and creoles.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

For Fredrik Jonasson and his colleagues at transportation and logistics company DB Schenker, fuel efficiency is gaining equal importance with speed; and mobile broadband is making this possible.

Drivers for DB Schenker in Sweden are trucking towards a more sustainable future with the help of an onboard mobile-broadband-enabled intelligent transport system that monitors and reduces fuel consumption in the freight company's fleet.

The monitoring system allows administrators to check on the location of each truck and to match that information with the flow of incoming orders. Fredrik, who works as Project Manager for Mobile Data, says the system enables the company's fleet to drive shorter distances with full loads and better information.

The mobile-broadband-enabled tools also monitor elements of driver behavior such as braking, gear shifting, acceleration and speed. Drivers can review and adjust their own data as it is downloaded from the web to a PDA.

"Our drivers have become more conscious of the way they drive," Fredrik says. "They're even starting to get competitive over who can score the highest on fuel consumption."

DB Schenker can also provide data from the system to customers who are concerned about carbon emissions. "Our customers are definitely aware of the environmental situation," Fredrik says. "They want more than speedy delivery – they want green thinking as well."

With a reliable internet connection, high-speed transmission and comprehensive HSPA or GPRS coverage around the country, each of the 3700 DB Schenker trucks uses about 10-20MB of data traffic per month. The company has requested the highest network speed available for this technology to run smoothly.

Ericsson provides the mobile broadband technology that makes solutions such as intelligent transport systems possible. And the demand for services enabled by mobile broadband will continue to grow. By 2014, we forecast that there will be 3.4 billion broadband subscribers worldwide, and that 80 percent of them will access the internet via a mobile connection.

This growth will have an impact on the environment. The use of mobile broadband and other information and communication technologies can help cut carbon emissions by up to 20 percent in areas such as commerce, energy, transport, facilities management and production.

To be concerned about carbon emissions is not just good for the environment. It’s also good for business. If a company can reduce transportation-based emissions, it can also reduce transportation costs.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Jari Arkko works as a network engineer in Finland. His favorite hobby is the family's super-connected house, which gives him access to both practical and fun services.

"The house lets us know when a door is opened, if there is a leak and if the temperature is dropping," Jari says. "When you know more about what is going on in the house, you can save money by taking action immediately. If I find out that the temperature is dropping, I can adjust the energy consumption."

Jari's connected home also gives him easy access to fun and entertaining services. "My favorite application in the house is probably the one for the sauna," he says. "It enables me to listen to internet radio and watch movies while I’m in the sauna."

Jari is way ahead of most people in connecting the devices in his house and he has put lots of time and effort into getting his home the way he wants it. Many of these services are available to the mass market through Ericsson's Connected Home Gateway.

The gateway gives consumers the freedom to access and interact with all multimedia devices and services available in the home, wherever they are.

Thomas Näsström, responsible for Connected Home at Ericsson, says that by using one central storage unit for digital media at home, you can show photos and films, and play music, on different terminals. "For example, you can display vacation pictures on the family’s flat-screen TV in the living room," he says. "But the best illustration of how the digital home works is that you can access your pictures, films and music outside the home."

"The home no longer needs to be a set, physical place. Consumers will be able to 'be at home' even when they're abroad, when they're sitting in their cars or in their summer houses."

Ericsson has a rich portfolio with products for broadband access and solutions for IPTV, telephony and multimedia, as well as a growing range of services for the connected home, such as storage, monitoring, measuring energy usage and health checks.

February 22, 2010

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Like many teenagers around the world, Mary Bakare sits in a cyber café using the internet for homework research. Yet this is no ordinary cyber café. This café is in the remote village of Ikaram in south western Nigeria, where poverty is common and life is tough. Just two seats away, university student Blessing Adeoye surfs the web. Thanks to the Millennium Villages Project, their cyber café has opened a door to a world of learning, global networking and social media.

Until recently the internet was something that Mary had only heard about and never dreamed of using. Now she is a regular at the cyber café in Ikaram. Blessing, an undergraduate English student, is impressed by the changes the cyber café has brought to his life since the project went live. He simply calls it "a wonder."

"The cyber café in my village has been tremendous," Blessing says. "It not only helps me search for materials online, but I am also able to network with my friends via Facebook. Who would have thought that such a wonder would be possible in a rural community such as Ikaram?"

Mary is equally impressed that she now has the World Wide Web at her fingertips.

"I'd heard about the internet but never used it before," she says. vIf someone had told me that I would be learning from the internet in my own village, I would have thought they were lying."

The cyber café is just one high-speed wireless outlet in a project involving 21 schools, four health centers and five community centers in seven communities in Ondo State that make up the Ikaram/Ibaram Millennium Village cluster.

The internet access in the schools element of the project is not only helping with literacy and learning, but is also teaching children computer skills that can enhance their future employment prospects.

Adults are also benefiting from the new telecommunications opportunities thanks to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Youth Friendly Centers, and through the project's healthcare system.

The Millennium Villages Project – a partnership between the United Nations Development Program, Millennium Promise, the Earth Institute and the host state government – is based on the concept that injecting basic social services, such as improved health and educational facilities, and the training of community members in basic life skills, will help to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

There are 12 Millennium Village clusters in 10 countries in the sub-Saharan region, including more than half a million people. Ericsson and its partners will deliver telecom connectivity to all Millennium Villages. Ericsson's partner in the Ikaram/Ibaram Millennium Village is African operator MTN.

Wale Goodluck, Corporate Services Executive at MTN, says: "MTN is privileged to be part of the Millennium Villages Project which seeks to promote the provision of accelerated world-class communication services in a rural village community setting. We hope that the access to the ICT provided will significantly facilitate the provision of improved healthcare delivery to the village cluster, enhance the quality of education in the schools in the region, improve the standard of agriculture practices and productivity and, overall, greatly facilitate private enterprise and commerce in the community."

While MTN provided the telecom platform and 3G broadcast internet services, Ericsson provided the network infrastructure and enabled internet access in the schools and health clinics. Sony Ericsson provided phones for community health workers involved in the project.

Jane Egerton-Idehen, an Account Manager with Ericsson Nigeria, says: "People in these villages are experiencing new business and learning opportunities for the first time. For a lot of these children it's the first time they have seen a computer. They are now using things that they have previously only heard about. These new opportunities present tangible, hands-on education possibilities and improve basic healthcare by providing health workers with internet and mobile phone connectivity."

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Mobile telephony has had a huge positive impact in the 13 years since its introduction to Sudan, Africa's largest country. Sudan's student population is one group that has benefitted, being able to stay in touch with family and friends when away from home. One student, Hiba, went further and turned her mobile phone into an innovative business.

Like most students the world over, Hiba depended on financial support from her parents when she began her studies at Khartoum University, and like most students, she soon needed more money to "fill the gap."

Hiba quickly realized that the mobile in her pocket – the same mobile that she bought to stay in touch with her parents in the first place – could help her.

She began selling mobile credits to fellow students, which in turn allowed them to stay in touch with their families and friends.

"I would buy credit for 100 Sudan Pounds (about USD 45) and distribute it to my friends for 110 Sudan Pounds (about USD 49.5)," she says.

In other words, Hiba's friends were able to buy the amount of credit they needed and, because she was able to divide the credit into so many portions, she was able to make a profit.

Her business model proved so successful among her friends they spread the word and other students began buying into the service.

Hiba's case is just one example of how the mobile phone has made a difference in Sudan.

The story of the mobile phone in the country is also the subject of a new report compiled by African operator Zain and Ericsson, called Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile Phones in Sudan.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, writes in the forward of the report that mobile telephony has had a "remarkable" impact on economic development in the country.

"Mobile telephony has quickly assumed a central place in Sudan’s economy: in direct employment in the telecoms sector itself; in providing market information and logistical support in the dominant agriculture sector; and in enabling families to stay in contact in the course of conflicts, migration, and large population displacements.

"Mobile penetration has extended beyond the Khartoum region to include South Sudan and even conflict-ridden Darfur. The use of mobile phones in refugee camps to support health, education, and family reunification is also being tested. The report underscores the central fact that mobile telephony offers a remarkable, indeed, unique, tool for economic development and can even reach the poorest of the poor through creative approaches by the providers and users."

Students in Kumasi, Ghana have started to interact with American peers to share ideas and learn about other parts of the world, thanks to a partnership between the city, the Millennium Cities Initiative, Ericsson and African operator Zain.

"The children were so amazed," says Dianna Hicks, a 5th grade teacher at Miner Elementary. "One student was almost in tears. They were connecting to a continent that they've been studying and have been told is where their ancestors came from. They need to learn the truths and untruths so they can garner their own opinions about places."

The US students all wondered how hot it was in Ghana, how the African students traveled to school and what kinds of activities they did outside of school.

"It was very entertaining and educational because I never thought I would be able to talk to kids from Africa unless I went there," said Daunya’ Tucker, a 10-year-old student at Miner Elementary School. "I had a very fun time."

The connectivity is enabled though the mobile network provided by Ericsson and Zain. In addition, Ericsson is providing the fixed wireless terminal devices for 18 participating schools in Kumasi, while Zain is providing the 3G SIM cards to the school. The schools will be fully connected in the coming months, and students will begin connecting with schools in New York City and Washington D.C. in September. Only Opoko Ware Senior High School has been connected so far.

The partnership is aiming to strengthen teachers’ and students’ skills in science, math, technology and reading.

"The experience for the students is priceless," Hicks says. "It is also priceless for the teachers. I get to collaborate with other teachers and figure out what works and what doesn't."

Eugene Asante-Bekoe, principal at Opoku Ware Junior High School, says they want to use the project to ensure cultural diversity, erase negative perceptions about Africa, and promote respect of others’ views and perceptions.

"The students are anxious to communicate and make friends from other countries," Asante-Bekoe says. "In fact, they are advocating that we further widen the scope to other countries such as Japan, Malaysia and Australia."

Asante-Bekoe says this is the first time that many students have used the internet, and it has been fun to see their eagerness to learn from their peers.

The Millennium Cities Initiative works to help selected sub-Saharan cities meet the Millennium Development Goals, providing nearby urban partners to the Millennium Villages Project, with which Ericsson is closely involved.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Not all of us can ski a grueling 90km cross-country race. Not all of us can get to the rock concert on the other side of the planet. But now we can all share in the thrill of the race, or the show, wherever we are.

Vasaloppet is one of the most famous ski races in the world, attracting the largest participation of any Nordic ski competition: 90km through rugged Swedish forest terrain, retracing a fabled skiing trek from 1521. This year's was the 12th for Niklas van der Schoot, the culmination of months of training. He was hoping to improve his position from last year.

But a new mobile portal, with payment and connections services enabled by Ericsson IPX and eStore, made the 2010 race a much more interactive affair, and not just for Niklas and other challengers. Competitors, their families and friends were able to make use of services such as breaking news, real-time position updates, video, weather conditions and forecasts.

Because it was built on the Ericsson eStore platform, it could be put together in just a few weeks. The platform can also be used for concerts, music festivals and international sporting competitions.

Sweden's annual Hultsfred Music Festival also trialed eStore last year. Users aged 19-28 said they liked the clean design of the mobile portal, which enabled them to find out who was playing when and where, and would be keen to use similar services in future.

For website operators, eStore removes some of the biggest hassles with going mobile. Once the format for the mobile portal is agreed and built, the platform creates a shadow mobile site that mirrors the fixed site. Updates to the fixed site are automatically reproduced on the mobile one.

And with eStore, mobile sites are much easier for visitors to use. The platform identifies the device accessing the site, and customizes the view to the correct screen size and browser settings. This means a site that gets the most out of a handset, and ensures visitors don’t need to zoom in and out and constantly resize windows.

The ultimate effect is a mobile site that updates itself, and enables a richer user experience, generating more network traffic and more satisfied subscribers.

Niklas completed the race in an impressive five hours and 48 minutes, and finished in 1882nd place. While he may not have beaten his time for last year, he, his family and other followers valued the portal.

There were about 15,000 competitors in this year's Vasaloppet. More than 25,000 took part using the mobile portal at m.vasaloppet.se.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

A family business that is constantly on the move, Grammy Award-winning rockers Los Lonely Boys rely on CDMA mobile broadband to keep their tours running smoothly and to stay connected with management, vendors, fans and family.

Its 9:43pm at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado, and Los Lonely Boys – brothers Henry, Ringo and Jojo Garza – are opening the show with a blistering rendition of their song, "Senorita."

There may be only three musicians on stage, but behind the scenes a crew of five spend nine hours each day, 200 days a year, executing logistical and production details orchestrated by tour manager, Glenn Felton. A 20-year veteran of the concert tour production business, Glenn pulls it all together with his mobile phone, a laptop and a mobile broadband connection from Verizon Wireless.

In a line of work where fixed broadband connections are either scarce or expensive to rent, mobile broadband enables Glenn to work not only on the bus but at each tour venue. A typical afternoon involves planning upcoming shows, dealing with promoters and conveying updates on stage requirements and catering – all while attending to dozens of issues like stage wardrobe needs, band and crew laundry, ordering meals and procuring gear.

Glenn snaps a photo from the side of the stage and uploads it to the group's Facebook page, then retreats to a corner where he has set up operations. He checks e-mail whenever he can, and no detail is too trivial for his immediate attention.

"I'm taking care of finances, I'm budgeting, I'm watching payroll and making sure we're getting paid, making sure my crew is happy and the band is happy," he says.

Stanley Zadrozny, executive director for network technology development at Verizon Wireless, says that such demanding use is possible because the company has "a proud history of providing the best 3G wireless network in the US and continues to update, upgrade, expand and improve it."

"Verizon's development of 4G LTE in 25 to 30 US metropolitan areas by the end of 2010 lays the groundwork for the next giant leap in user experience," Zadrozny says.

After the show, settling into a leather booth in the bus' forward lounge area, Glenn begins checking e-mail and the latest weather forecasts. "Out here on the road we get great connectivity," he says. "This is where my day starts and ends. Often I'll leave some work for the bus, and while we're moving I’ll catch up on e-mails to friends and family."

Mobile broadband enables Glenn to conduct the band's business round-the-clock, whether on a mountain pass or in a congested city. "There’s nothing I've run into that I can’t send over the mobile network," Felton says. "It saves us money, time and paper, and we keep everyone happy and productive."

Slavery. Looking back in history, we associate it with the very worst traits of human behavior. But slavery and human trafficking are not confined to history; they are happening right now. Human rights organization Survivors Connect uses text messaging and other connectivity to tackle the problem and help survivors.

The world’s poorest countries are the easiest targets when it comes to human trafficking and slavery, either by forced labor, forced marriage or sexual exploitation.

Those countries are also where many natural disasters strike. Survivors Connect’s CEO, Aashika Damodar, says traffickers capitalize on such disasters, at a time when people are at their most vulnerable, to trick victims with promises of a better life.

"After the tsunami struck Southeast Asia in 2004, I saw people being trafficked," Aashika says. "It was because they were desperate to get out of their circumstances and take jobs elsewhere. Traffickers use instances like this to pick people up."

With this in mind, Survivors Connect immediately turned its attention to Haiti – which is among the poorest countries in the western world – after the massive magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck on January 12 this year.

Survivors Connect teamed up with other non-governmental organizations to try to prevent a repeat of the trafficking that followed the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami.

"We had to ensure that children and women were protected," Aashika says. "The dilemma is how best to do this in a situation where people are desperate to get out and be safe, and where people are being promised work and a better life. Even adoption can be used as a disguise for trafficking people to become domestic servants, or victims of commercial sexual exploitation. This was our greatest challenge.

"We needed an easily accessible tool for action, support and protection. We asked ourselves: 'Where and how can you get that in Haiti?'"

The answer was FrontlineSMS – software that enables individuals to communicate with large groups directly through text messaging. A mobile signal is all that is needed. In Haiti, more people have access to mobile devices than fixed-line phones.

"Working only with local all-Haitian-led non-government organizations (NGOs), I helped pilot a FrontlineSMS helpline network to coordinate a team of psychologists and abuse counselors," Aashika says. "We created a private helpline accessible to 50 camps, available to more than 150,000 people, so that individuals can report instances of abuse, violence, missing persons and all related issues that could result in trafficking or other human rights violations."

Survivors Connect team members visited – and continue to visit – camps, to raise awareness of trafficking issues and to offer the helpline service directly.

"This way it is personal," Aashika says. "You see the face of the person at the end of the phone line, and this builds trust. It is not like the impersonal national hotlines that operate in some countries."

Hundreds of text messages have been received and acted upon in the four months since the earthquake.

"We're building a helpline network of support for victims, gathering data on trouble areas, and establishing a locally-driven movement that works beyond international support," Aashika says. "My goal is to empower local groups to take this into their own hands and eventually operate without me."

FrontlineSMS is provided free of charge to national and international NGOs working on human rights and disaster relief monitoring, and emergency alerts. It is particularly effective in developing countries where lack of communication is often a major problem.

Ken Banks, the founder of kiwanja.net, the company that developed FrontlineSMS, says: "We provide the tools and the platform." His employees work closely with the organizations it partners with to empower people to create social change for the better.

Survivors Connect

A small organization based in Fair Oaks, California in the US, Survivors Connect works to build global advocacy and support networks of survivors and activists working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking. The organization is currently operating with local grassroots organizations in countries such as Vietnam, Nepal, Ghana and Haiti. Survivors Connect aims to use the latest tools in social networking, mobile and web technology.

kiwanja.net

Kiwanja.net helps local, national and international non-profit organizations to make better use of information and communications technology through the application of mobile technology. The text-messaging system FrontlineSMS is being used in more than 40 countries in a wide range of non-profit activities.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Gail Raw, state manager of cancer screening and control services in Tasmania, and her colleagues, are empowering the women of outback Australia by improving the overall breast screening process by using the latest broadband technology.

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia with more than 12,000 women diagnosed with the disease every year. Developing a more efficient service for diagnosing breast cancer is at the core of what BreastScreen Australia is doing when taking healthcare to rural areas, or "the bush."

With the aim to reduce deaths from breast cancer through early detection and by providing an online real-time process, the BreastScreen Rural Broadband Digital Mammography Project is enhancing the level of service and capacity of breast screens to service women in rural areas in the state of Tasmania. The screens are carried out in screening vans with digital equipment which tour remote areas, eliminating the need for long-distance travel.

"The equipment has opened up so many possibilities for these women, who have previously had to travel great distances to receive the screening and then wait for more than two weeks for a response," Gail says.

Australian operator Telstra is supporting the project, with an integrated mobile-broadband solution that employs Ericsson's end-to-end HSPA/WCDMA solution. The fixed and wireless broadband networks installed in the screening service vans enable large image files of breast screens (30MB-50MB) to be sent digitally from screening points to assessment centers reducing the risk of damaged or lost images when compared with physical x-rays and improving productivity.

Wireless broadband allows image transfer from the mobile service center, overcoming the logistical problems of installing temporary fixed-broadband services.

Being connected this way reduces the risks and inefficiencies associated with the conventional analog x-ray film-based screening system. The breast screen images can now be captured digitally, integrated with an electronic patient record, sent to a BreastScreen assessment center and stored electronically in a picture archiving communication system by using Telstra's Next G mobile broadband network.

This article contains a video which can be viewed on the web page.

Vintners and vine growers have been working for centuries to create the perfect grape for the perfect glass of wine. Now wireless technology is set to help them. In a research project in Panzano in Chianti in Tuscany, Italy, the remote monitoring of organic vineyards is proving beneficial.

Ericsson's vision of a world with 50 billion connected devices by 2020 means that almost everything will be connected, from our mobile phones and TV sets to our transportation and health care facilities.

Agriculture is just one of the sectors in which mobile broadband and machine-to-machine communication can increase productivity, while delivering environmental benefits.

Several vineyards in Panzano are part of the remote monitoring research project, aimed at finding the best organic farming methods for producing good-quality wine.

Ruggero Mazzilli, project leader at Panzano, says: "We can use remote monitoring thanks to wireless sensors in the vineyard to effectively reduce the way we use pesticides."

Panzano winemaker Luca Orsini and his family make Chianti Classico in their Le Cinciole organic vineyard. Taking care of the environment in the wine-making process is vital for the Orsinis, who now utilize a mobile technology solution.

"For me, it is important how I produce the wine," Luca says. "It's an important aspect of my life. This year, we decided to introduce this new technology, VineSense, in our vineyard to control many factors. This system is very important to us because it allows us to control the vines in real time."

VineSense is a wireless monitoring system with sensors in the vines that send information through a GPRS system. Vine growers can access the data online. The mobile technology solution can help them to save water and reduce the use of pesticides.

Davide Di Palma, product manager at Netsens, the company that developed VineSense, says: "VineSense gives farmers a tool to help them decide when, and how often, to intervene with chemicals or pesticides. It also allows farmers to control water, soil moisture and irrigation. This is done with great accuracy because you take measurements exactly where you need to."

Luca says: "This contrast between high technology and low technology is… funny. To preserve a traditional system of production, sometimes you need new technology."

Mazzilli says: "Bio agriculture is not, and should not be seen as, a return to the past. We cannot use the same models as our grandparents, which were a result of poverty. To make this more appealing to young people today, we can use technological innovations which help save energy and teach them new skills."