poverty and telephony access in latin america and the caribbean mobile opportunities:
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Poverty and Telephony Access in Latin America and the Caribbean
Mobile Opportunities:
Explore the strategies employed by the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean to access and use mobile telephony services, as well as to identify the major market and regulatory barriers for increased penetration and usage
GOAL
• MOBILE OPPORTUNITIES Survey 2. Key Results
3. Conclusions and Recommendations
CONTENTS
Mobile Opportunities Survey1
•Mobile users vs. owners•Patterns of Use•Key Access Strategies•Value of Use •Reasons for not being a user
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
7 LAC countries
total of 7,168 surveys
low income urban inhabitants
METHODOLOGY
KEY RESULTS2
most people in LAC are
USERS and OWNERS
90JAMAICA 94
30MEXICO 37
42BRAZIL 53
37PERU 60
61ARGENTINA 70
83T&T 86
63COLOMBIA 89
(%)
9698%9692909674
T&TJamaica PeruMexicoColombiaBrazilArgentina
LAC is prepaid
REASON control mobile spending
Most users think mobile services are neither cheap nor expensive
COST PERCEPTION
users value mobile use
ARGENTINA
T&T
PERU
COLOMBIA
MEXICO
JAMAICA
BRAZIL
cheap neither/nor expensive
Mobile services at the BOP appears to be inelastic to tariff variations DEMAND ELASTICITY
Most common cost-control strategies:
¨beeping¨ or simply not making outgoing calls
for a period of time
COST REDUCTIONSTRATEGIES
BARRIERS TO OWNERSHIP
Service affordability remains a key barrier for increased adoption of basic as well as value-added services.
ARGENTINA
T&T
PERU
COLOMBIA
MEXICO
JAMAICA
BRAZIL
Can’t afford it Not necessary
BARRIERS TO OWNERSHIP
Brazil, Mexico and Peru: a majority of the poor still cannot afford a mobile
many rely on informal resellers and family or friends to make or receive calls.
those who can afford their own mobile phone make little use of voice and other services,
tightly control their expenditure
frequently rely on public payphones for outgoing calls.
TYPICAL BASKET USAGE
Most users in LA make less than one call a day, while outgoing call levels are higher in Caribbean countries because of more affordable tariffs.
ARGENTINAT&T PERUCOLOMBIA MEXICOJAMAICA BRAZIL
average median
Total outgoing calls per week
KEEPING IN TOUCH IS KEY
Most mobile calls are made to friends and family, followed by business-related calls
ARGENTINA T&TPERUCOLOMBIA MEXICOBRAZIL
friends workplacerelatives
Destination of outgoing calls
100%
0
SMS: MAIN NON-VOICE APPLICATION
SMS is the only service beyond voice that is gaining rapid adoption across the region
ARGENTINA
T&T
PERU
COLOMBIA
MEXICO
JAMAICA
BRAZIL
SMS use among mobile phone users (%)
18
BASIC DATA (2007)
Brazil
121 million mobiles, added 21 million
mobilesteledensity of 63.59
world’s fifth largest mobile market
7 million households with broadband internet
(2008)next to last lowest use of mobiles with 79 minutes /month, behind Perufourth most expensive tariff (US$ 0.26/per minute with PPP), together with Japan.
19
ADDITIONAL RESULTS
Brazil
small majority uses mobiles, but 1/3 of non users
plan to acquire one
2/3 of users own a prepaid mobile, the majority
having purchased it.
mobile users are willing to spend more on the
service immense opportunity for government to
take a quantum leap in the provision of services
20
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS3
Mobile Telephony is not a luxury good
Economic impact is mediated by social capital
variables such as strengthening of trust networks
and improved coordination of informal job markets.
Poor attribute a significant improvement in quality of
life to mobile access: consistent with highexpenditure level & low elasticity of
demand.
For poor Mobile Telephony is
A tool for strengthening social ties and for increased personal security,
beginning to prove useful for enhancing business and employment opportunities.
perceived to bring numerous benefits <=significant level of expenditure on mobile handsets and services
Tariffs are the main barrier to access
Lower tariffs do not have to penalize operators
results show a wide margin for win-win initiatives thru
increased traffic & value-added services to BoP.
M-banking and M-government are stillunderdeveloped in LAC.
As users inch up the technological learning curve and
equipment prices continue to fall, Mobile Opportunities
will only increase.
Emergent Markets:
BOP
Emergent Technologies:
M-commerceM-bankingM-government
Emergent Consumers:
A greater proportion of women use Mobile PhoneInformal workers and micro-entrepreneurs: business opportunities
Poverty and Telephony Access in Latin America and the Caribbean
www.dirsi.net
Mobile Opportunities: