I am not sure about this one, but one system I have heard of is that person A buys air-time for person B who may or may not be in the same village, region etc. (this is easily done and many parents in Norway do it for their children), The innovation is that person B goes into the local phone store and basically sells back the air time for cash.
Rich L. -----Original Message----- From: Barry Wellman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 9:15 PM To: Ling Richard Seyler (R&I) Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [mobile-society] Kenyans to transfer money using cell phones Not rich's fault, but i hate these press releases that don't say how it will work, or if it will work. Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________ On Tue, 6 Mar 2007 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 19:03:54 +0100 > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [mobile-society] Kenyans to transfer money using cell phones > > Hello all, > > This is an interesting development. It seems that money transfer via > the mobile is being used in the third world. It may be that the mobile > as an electronic wallet comes there first. > > Rich L. > > Safaricom <http://www.safaricom.com/2005/default.asp> , Kenya's biggest > cell phone firm, on Tuesday launched a money transfer service that will > use short message services, which it said was the first of its kind in > the world. Reuters > <http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070306/tc_nm/kenya_safaricom_dc> reports. > "The product allows its 5.8 million subscribers to use their cell phones > to send money in the east African country where it is commonplace for > one family member working in the city to support a whole family living > in rural areas. ... Kenyans will deposit or access the money through > Safaricom agents like supermarkets or shops situated all over the > country. Kenya's Minister for Communication, Mutahi Kagwe, highlighted > the opportunity for remote communities: "This will help people in > far-flung parts of the country who have no banking services, now anyone > can have a bank in their pocket." > http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070306/tc_nm/kenya_safaricom_dc > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
