Use of mobile phones has grown rapidly among the poor in Sri Lanka, becoming almost an indispensable business tool among small entrepreneurs and farmers, according to a new study.
A multi-country study titled ‘Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid’ said the trend opens up possible opportunities to develop new applications and services to cater to the interests of these users.
Presenting the results of the study in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday Rohan Samarajiva, chief executive of LIRNEasia, a think tank which studies how the poor use information communications technology said that the biggest economic benefit from the use of mobile phones was their ability to reduce travel, LBO reported.
The LBO story filed from Bangkok quoted Samarajiva as saying: "We found a great deal of emphasis placed on reducing travel through use of mobile phones and improving efficiency of day-to-day work".
The study, covering Bangladesh, India, Java in Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, focused on use of mobile phones for value-generation among poor people.
Phones have overtaken radio at the ‘BOP’ in all countries except Sri Lanka although some mobiles were used as radios, according to the study.
Computer use at the ‘BOP’ level was low overall as was internet use but mobile phones emerged as almost ubiquitous.
"Probably smart phones are beginning to appear in this population group," said Samarajiva. "So it means more, and better applications can be developed than in feature phones."
Compared with previous surveys among the same population group, the use of mobiles for livelihood purposes in general had grown.
"There’s a huge potential with these devices. If so we need more applications," Samarajiva said. "We do need more things that people can do with mobiles.
"Also, phones are designed to be simpler than computers. That’s another reason why we have a lot of potential there."
One possibility was looking at more than voice services such as using phones to do payments.
Another was the user interface, of whether subscribers should confine themselves to typing SMS (short message service) or of using emerging voice recognition technology to verbally communicate with services on the phone.
Farmers in the field, for instance, especially those not literate, would not want to do typing.
Mobile phones were already being used by traders and farmers such as for finding market price information and get transportation for crops, apart from giving them the ability to reach a wider range of business contacts.
"We can clearly established mobiles are the pre-eminent communications technology among the poor," said Samarajiva. "Over and over, we hear ‘I will not be able to function without the mobile’."
However, use of mobiles for livelihood-related purposes in agriculture sector was still moderate."
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=49168
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