Vision - January/February 2008 - (Page 40) of other Motorola products and on-site repair services. The kiosks also serve as a local “phone booth” for those who do not own or have access to a mobile phone. Motorola provides local entrepreneurs with a business start-up package including four Motorola handsets and a business skills training course. “MotoPower is the first initiative of its kind to exist for women in Africa” says Nikesh Patel, senior sales director, mobile devices business, Motorola Africa. “There has to be a profit motive involved. At the end of the day, you have to build a business to make it sustainable, and to enable it to expand.” —Eric Nonacs Success Stories Emerging from Greenfields As the track record grows, companies and government agencies are pointing to their achievements in bringing technology and new services to emerging markets. Nonacs, the Vancouver banker, points to several developments in Rwanda as emblematic of the values that technology brings to developing countries. “Rwanda is a great story,” he says. The new political leadership has deemed that it wants Rwanda to become one of the information technology hubs in Africa as part of its efforts to put the country together after the rupturing devastation of the 1990s. “The government has pursued an aggressive program of making computers available and establishing computer education and new technical institutes,” Nonacs explains. In fact, his Excellency Paul Kagame, the president of The Republic of Rwanda will speak at the International CES about some of the successes that Rwanda has experienced using technology. In keeping with his applications eco-system viewpoint, Nonacs cites the work of Voxiva, which is deploying its mobile phone technology Creating Value While Building Markets in Rwanda to handle disease tracking. Voxiva’s menu-driven phone Emerging eco-systems are taking shape as global corporations and system allows health care workers in small communities to send up-toinnovative start-ups find their opportunities in remote regions of the the-minute tracking reports on AIDS and other diseases. This enables world. Many of the companies are sharing a variety of experiences. instant analysis of epidemiology and other health factors rather than Collectively, they affirm the need for a long-term commitment and waiting weeks or months for paperwork to be processed. the importance of establishing solid local contacts. Examples of opportunistic use of technology abound. For example, They acknowledge the social rewards and are even starting to idenConnect Africa also is pursuing an ambitious communications projtify environmental and distribution structures that they can export ect that combines entrepreneurship and social enterprise to bring back to their wealthier, healthier, legacy markets in Europe, Asia and communication, business and public services to rural communities the Americas. across Africa through government/industry collaboration (www. For example, Motorola has been developing mobile handsets with ConnectAfrica.net). extremely long battery life, vital in areas where steady, reliable electricity flow is unpredictable. Similarly, Motorola and other Significantly, it also involves a creative application of high Voxiva’s Paul Meyer manufacturers have modified screens for use in sunny, outfrequency radio and satellite communications to suppledoor conditions where it’s hard to find a shady area to view ment conventional wireless communication technology. “Ultimately it is the attraction of millions of new subthe screen. scribers in rural Africa that helps us develop innovative As ConnectAfrica’s Jerling puts it, “Developing countries ways to overcome the initial costs of bringing commuoffer a rich environment for innovation often because there nication facilities to these new markets,” explains Dion is no other choice.” • Jerling, the special projects director for the program. After a recent successful pilot project in South Africa’s Limpopo province, the Intel’s Frank Martinez commercial rollout is facing a frustrating bureaucratic process. It’s a familiar story of policy-makers approving a concept but under-funding the full implementation. “Rather than waiting, we’re talking to cellular networks about commercial partnerships where they invest in the concept to deliver services to rural communities, and ConnectAfrica facilitates this,” Jerling explains. “We are making some good progress with this approach.” ConnectAfrica has set up task forces in Kenya, Zambia and Botswana and has had expressions of interest from Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Ghana too, Jerling adds. “Our plan is to have South Africa covered with our mobile network by 2010,” he says. “Once we have a big enough network operating in any one of these countries I have no doubt we will be able to successfully approach any African country,” he says enthusiastically. “Most of rural Africa remains under-serviced. The obvious place for us to start is at the edge of current cellular coverage and partner with the networks to push this boundary further into the rural areas.” Beyond the initial phase, Jerling envisions “a long-termprocess in bringing cellular networks to deep rural regions” with accompanying ICT-driven services. He believes that in return for this “market making,” ConnectAfrica will be able to “negotiate a share of the revenue which in turn finances us to push our network into deeper rural locations,” a process that he calls “smart funding.” Motorola also is involved in the Limpopo, South Africa, telemedicine network, the largest private broadband network in the country, stretching from the City of Tshwane (in the south) to Rebone Clinic (in the north)—a distance of 260 kilometers. The system, which uses Motorola’s MotoWi4 technologies, assists doctors in very rural regions, by connecting them to larger hospitals for consultations using live video feeds. Another benefit of the project has been training for health specialists in previously isolated regions. 40 January/February 2008 www.ce.org http://www.ConnectAfrica.net http://www.ConnectAfrica.net http://www.ce.org
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