Benefits for consumers
- Mobile phones help generate income by enabling micro-business entrepreneurs reach out to a wider net of customers with better service and greater efficiency.
- Mobiles 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, mobiles are a sign of medernity and promise improved opportunties for work, social contact, and income.
Mobile communication, more than any other technology, is driving social and economic development in the less-developed parts of the world.
Greater access to such communications services as voice calls, SMS and the internet deliver considerable benefits for individuals in lower-income brackets.
We have carried out detailed consumer studies in a number of high-growth economies and found real-life examples of how mobile communication is improving the lives of ordinary people.
In Devicot, India, 30-year-old Devilel runs a metalworking shop. Before he had a mobile phone, customers were forced to come to his workshop if they wanted to place orders, and Devilel often travelled for several hours to purchase supplies.
The mobile phone has changed his situation. Customers can now place orders by phone and he can call them when the job is done. Today, he has twice as many customers as he did before he started using a mobile phone.
In Brazil, a street vendor doubled his income after buying a mobile phone. He uses his phone to place orders for more supplies and his customers can call him when they want to buy the goods he sells.
Mobile networks also help create an entire new modern infrastructure. Sending money via top-up cards, for example, is a safe and cheap option for many people. Mobile remittances are also an important service for people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to a bank account or a functioning financial infrastructure.
Mobile telephony can also give people immediate access to doctors, who might be up to 10 hours away by foot.
From helping families stay in touch to giving people financial independence and greater access to education and healthcare, telecommunication is changing lives for the better.
