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February 2010 Blog Posts (4)

Mobile Money still championed mostly by emerging markets

Three years after Safaricom launched its pioneer m-Pesa service in Kenya, African operators are still world leaders in the provision of mobile money services. The seemingly simple service, allowing unbanked people to transfer money by text, has allowed countless ordinary people to send money to their loved ones and business partners without…

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Added by Julie Rey on February 26, 2010 at 6:27pm — No Comments

As Bharti tries another move into Africa, is the Indian operator business model transposable there?

Outsourcing, managed services, and more generally cost-reduction strategies have been major areas of interest in African telecoms markets in the past couple of years, as the decline in ARPU levels started to have a impact on revenues which was not compensated as much by the organic growth experienced until then. African operators began to…

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Added by Julie Rey on February 22, 2010 at 6:35pm — No Comments

How can social networking tools get Africa online?

Twitter, Facebook, Ning - these social networks are driving ICT adoption worldwide. They're also increasing revenues and efficiencies in leading American and European companies.

But what's the impact, if any, of social networking technologies on businesses and communities in Africa? Are they really getting rural communities online? Do businesses see increased revenues? Or do social… Continue

Added by Wayan Vota on February 22, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Size and Growth of the ICT-for-Development Research Field

Some positive statistics on the academic side of ICT4D research:

- Between 1999 and 2008, annual output of academic publications on ICTs and developing countries recorded in the main publications database grew by nearly 2000% (a 39% annual average increase).

- And annual output in a set of ICT4D specialist journals (not recorded in the database) grew by 450% from 1998 to 2009.

More details at:…

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Added by Richard Heeks on February 8, 2010 at 3:07pm — No Comments