Cellphone for Development
Relatório coloca em evidência a força dos telefones celulares para a transformação política e social. O relatório Going Wireless: Dialing for Development, concetra-se na base da pirâmide e em como os telefones celulares podem mudar a economia dos países em desenvolvimento. (via MobileActive.org)
Trechos:
“Mobile phones are transforming economic life for consumers in developing countries, says a new report by David Lehr. The report Going Wireless: Dialing for Development, focuses on ‘base of the pyramid’ consumers and the ways that mobile phones have the potential to change economies in the developing world. Lehr writes,
‘The mobile phone has established itself as the communication and networking platform of choice for billions of the world’s consumers, most of whom are at the base of the global economic pyramid. Worldwide, mobile phone subscribers outnumber Internet users almost 3 to 1, with much of that gap coming from skyrocketing mobile phone use in Africa, India and China. Analysts estimated that sixty?five percent of all handsets made in 2007 would be sold in emerging markets.’
Throughout the report, Lehr emphasizes the reasons that mobile phones can have a larger impact for base-of-the-pyramid consumers than for people in the developed world. ‘Having access to information may save a few minutes in the developed world; in rural areas, it may save a day’s travel time, lost wages or an entire year’s vegetable crop,’ he writes. In developing countries mobile phones have a greater impact than the Internet, especially considering the wide availability of low-cost phones and pre-paid calling cards. ‘The increased mobility and accessibility of the mobile phone has the potential to have an even greater impact than broadband Internet, particularly in low?income rural areas where alternative communication platforms remain scarce,’ Lehr writes. (…)”.