The more phones, the better
I used to lead a company that made and sold mobile phone infrastructure - advanced base station antennas in our case - and the developing nations were a key target market for us. Extending mobile phone usage throughout developing nations has been proven in many studies to be one of the best investments they can make, along with education. Simple example - a smallholding farmer typically sells his produce to a multi-tiered, inefficient wholesale system, from whom the small retailers in the area buy all their produce. Why? The wholesalers control the information, the trucks and the relationships. Mobile phones enable the grower and the retailer to deal direct on a daily basis, at better prices for both, and they can pool with others to make their own transport arrangements. The economy is thereby more efficient. There are myriad other examples.
Mobile phones are not luxury goods in countries with few landlines - they are essential for transforming the economy. The more people with them, the better the economy can perform; the network effect made real. Mobile broadband will have an even bigger impact in these countries - way beyond what we’ll see in the developed world. The more phones, the better.
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