Iraqi Date Merchant and Mobile Phones
By Paul
“I buy and sell dates and my whole business is now dependent on the mobile phone. Trading in dates (like any other commodity) is a risky business characterized by significant price fluctuations, especially during the harvest season. Prior to having access to a mobile phone, I faced great difficulty in obtaining timely information about price variations. This delay in obtaining up-to-date prices sometimes resulted in significant losses, whereby I would sell a lot of dates at a low price. Since I bought my mobile phone, I am in continuous contact with the date trade exchange center which helps me strike deals at the right price”.
That’s an Iraqi date merchant taking about the importance of mobile phone in his business. Other highlights from a report on the socio-economic role of mobile phones in the Arab middle-east;
- Mobile revenues accounted for 5% of the increase in GDP in Bahrain between 2002-04
- In Jordan, the number of employees in the mobile sector increased by 42% over the 4yr period of liberalization
- Many mobile operators represent more than 30% percent of a total stock market – such as Egypt’s Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange
- 95% of Iraqis use their phone to ensure the safety of their loved ones, 83% of Iraqis see it as a necessity in life, and 77% said it made life easier
According to some estimates a developing country with an extra 10 phones per 100 people between 1996 and 2003 would have had GDP growth 0.59% higher than an otherwise identical country ( often these studies are financed by telephone companies);
To illustrate these findings, Mr Waverman considers Indonesia (nine mobile phones per 100 people) and the Philippines (27 phones per 100 people). Long-run growth in the Philippines, he suggests, could be a percentage point higher than in Indonesia if this gap is maintained. But if Indonesia closed the gap, its growth rate would match that of the Philippines. Mr Waverman also notes, however, that there is a large education gap between the two countries. His model predicts that bridging this divide would boost Indonesia's growth rate even more than closing the mobile gap. “Mobile phones are important, but so is education and health care,” he says. “A lot of things are required for growth.” He concludes by calling for regulatory policies that favour competition and encourage the speediest possible spread of mobile telephony. For policymakers interested in closing the “digital divide” to boost growth, the message is clear: mobile phones are the most effective means of doing so.
And liberalization and new technology helps. Look at India.
According to the stats available for January, the telecom sector in India added 5 million new subscribers, of which 4.75 were mobile connections. That's about 167,000 new subscribers (of which 158,000 are mobile users) being added *every day*. By comparison, in the pre-reform period (I am using 1974-1989 data here, though it's even lower pre-1974), India added about 175,000 new connections *every year*.
Now the World Bank has released a brand new report Information and Communications for Development 2006: Global Trends and Policies which takes stock of the progress that has been achieved worldwide in rolling out access to affordable ICT and provides evidence on what makes for success in adopting ICT to meet development challenges. The report also highlights some stark differences as well;
While the developing world has seen huge progress in rollout of basic ICT infrastructure, the picture is more mixed for advanced use of ICT. Worldwide, Internet use more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2005, but differences in the number of secure Internet servers, a proxy for the availability of e-commerce, remain stark. While developed nations have more than 300 such servers per 1 million people, developing nations have fewer than 2.
Are there any people who hate mobile phones? Once a taxi driver (in Male’, Maldives) complained to me that since mobile phones have become so popular, people have reduced taxi trips- Maldives used to have the highest mobile tariffs in the South Asia. In terms of mobile phone subscribers there were over 113,000 subscribers (out of a total population of 280,000). In the US mobile subscribers stood at 615 per 1000 at end 2004. In very small countries like Maldives foreign parties like the Wataniya are interested mostly because they can use the place as a test bed for new technologies.
Related Links:
- Impact of Mobile Phones in Africa, Vodafone
- Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile Phones in Arab World
- Financing ICT Investment in the Developing World
- Telephone is a weapon against poverty
- At A Glace Tables from the World Bank Report; 30 ICT Indicators for 144 Countries; it’s best such of indicators I have seen.
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