Dear Peter, I think you'd be better off sticking to your initial recommendation. It may very well be best for the operators to have their customers on a subscription contract (and allow them to increase investment in infrastructure), but for many people it doesn't seem to be an option.
I work on a project delivering content services such as job information, health information, government information, etc. via SMS to bottom of the pyramid (BOP) customers in Kenya (soon to be rolled out to other countries). The project has a particular focus on Kibera, East Africa's largest informal settlement, and it seems that being on a contract simply wouldn't be an option for many of the people there. The barriers include lack of a fixed addresses, lack of credit history, the need to be able to tightly control spending and the need for micro and flexible payments options (I see pre-pay as micro payments, and subscriber contracts not to be micro payments, but I might be wrong here. There may be a way to tailor the contracts that I don't know). I would say that one answer to your last question (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?) simply is that the relationships operators should concentrate on building with its customers is loyalty, which they should do by providing the most attractive services to the BOP segment. The reason for operators to be interested in Africa ATM is scale - massive untapped market. Market research should be enough of a tool to know where to roll out infrastructure, etc. I don't really understand the model you describe as the second generation of pre paid. How would people "top-up" their accounts using the handsets themselves? I can see it working if you have a bank account or a credit card, but how would it work if you don't. Can you explain? Have you looked into recommendations around contracts and handset technologies that support sharing of handsets? Handsets that allow more than one SIM card, SIM cards that can be split into several virtual mail boxes, etc. I'm not sure what the best way of supporting sharing of handsets would be, but I know that there is a big need for it. I'd be interested in seeing your research. Best wishes, Britt ::::::::::::::::::::: Britt Jorgensen OneWorld UK [EMAIL PROTECTED] t +1 646 918 6401 www.openknowledge.net www.oneworld.net and www.oneworld.net/uk ------------ ***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/>
