Dear Colleagues, I am writing a report for infoDev on demand patterns for ICT in sub-Saharan Africa with the overall goal being to convince telecom operators that there is more demand for services that they might think, and thus that there is money to be made in rolling out more infrastructure. (Astute readers may recall a request for examples that I sent out some months ago.) Since mobile phones have emerged as the "killer app" (at least for the time being), many of the cases I have been studying do, in fact, deliver services over the GSM network.
My research has lead me to the preliminary recommendation (among others) that telecoms adopt a Prahalad-like approach: basically, that they package mobile telephony in quantities that customers in sub-Saharan Africa can afford, using what could be considered the prepaid model, Version 2.0: instead of scratch cards, end-users could "top-up" their accounts using the handsets themselves. Now, however, my research has led me to "Stimulating Investment in Network Development: Roles for Regulators" <http://www.regulateonline.org/content/view/435/31/>. In this publication, one of the authors, Amy Mahan, makes a compelling argument that the pre-paid model produces negative incentives to building infrastructure. In essence, her arguments follow reasoning perhaps best expressed by de Soto; namely, that relationships are what is important, and are themselves a source of capital. By signing that hated two-year service agreement with Cingular or Verizon, we in the developed world are in essence sharing some of the business risk with the telecom, thus enabling them to make some predictions about their customer base, churn rate, etc., and enabling them to invest in infrastructure accordingly. How can a telecom operator have a relationship with its customers if it doesn't even know how many of them there are, let alone who or where they are? Thoughts? Peter Baldwin -- URL: www.anapurnawebdesign.com CV: www.peterbaldwin.info "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
