The Lure of the Internet - Blake Manson

In mature markets, internet access is readily available for just about everyone. High Speed internet has touched the lives of almost everyone. Using the internet has become as familiar as making a phone call, or turning on the TV.

In many emerging markets, internet access remains in the hands of businesses and higher income individuals predominantly in urban areas. Even in areas where all the conditions do not line up exactly for internet, there is no reason to believe that accessing the internet on a daily basis will not become as common in these markets as it is elsewhere.

There are 1.5 billion internet users globally, but more than 4 billion mobile phone users. There is clearly a massive untapped resource of people who are already familiar with basic communications technology, but lack the access to internet.

There are already signs of the incredible growth potential showing up in emerging markets.
"I have seen mobile access to the internet become a widespread idea flowing through the country side of Guatemala faster than the mudslides following a tropical storm. 3G networks are being accessed now more than ever, and people finding ways to connect to their friends and family more than ever." - Alex Castillo, Guatemala, Oct 2012.

Uses of the internet in the Rural Guatemalan Countryside.  
Viewing and sending pictures - 60%
Friendly conversation - 30%
Business - 2.2%
News and current events - 1.2%
Fact check -  .6%
Other - 6%

In other parts of the world, such as Chile, mobile internet connections jumped by 315% in 2008.
An April 2009 report called Pyramid Research, predicts that mobile broadband adoption in Africa and the Middle East will grow faster than the global average over the next five years, with the subscriber total increasing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 33% to reach 32.2 million by 2014.


 According to the ITU World Telecommunication Database:

• by end 2011, there were more than 1 billion mobile‐broadband subscriptions worldwide.
• In 2011, 144 million mobile‐broadband subscriptions were added in the BRICS (Brazil, the
  Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa), accounting for 45% of the world’s total
  subscriptions added in 2011.
• By end 2011, there were more mobile‐broadband subscriptions than inhabitants in the
  Republic of Korea and Singapore. In Japan and Sweden, active mobile‐broadband penetration
  surpassed 90% by end 2011.
• Total mobile‐cellular subscriptions reached almost 6 billion by end 2011, corresponding to a
  global penetration of 86%.
• Growth was driven by developing countries, which accounted for more than 80% of the 660
  million new mobile‐cellular subscriptions added in 2011.
• In 2011, 142 million mobile‐cellular subscriptions were added in India, twice as many as in the
  whole Africa, and more than in the Arab States, CIS and Europe together.
• By end 2011, there were 105 countries with more mobile‐cellular subscriptions than
  inhabitants, including African countries such as Botswana, Gabon, Namibia, Seychelles and
  South Africa.

A minority of the global population uses the internet today. Yet the potential for massive penetration for this technology offers the greatest opportunity for the billions of people who do not yet use this wonder of the information era. Internet services can help people to build better lives and to support nations as they create economic prosperity. The pinpoint idea that will unlock this opportunity is affordable access. Innovation in technology, business, and policy making can make affordable access a reality for even more people further and further down the income pyramid.

Ultimately, nobody, whatever their income, will need to be deprived of the benefits of the internet, and its ability to use information to improve their lives.

Energy technology: Cheaper and better solar-powered electric lights promise to do away with kerosene-fuelled lanterns

WHICH plastic gadget, fitting neatly in one hand, can most quickly improve the lives of the world’s poorest people? For the past decade the answer has been clear: the mobile phone. But over the next decade it will be the solar-powered lamp, made up of a few light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a solar panel and a small rechargeable battery, encased in a durable plastic shell. Just as the spread of mobile phones in poor countries has transformed lives and boosted economic activity, solar lighting is poised to improve incomes, educational attainment and health across the developing world.
As previously happened with mobile phones, solar lighting is falling in price, improving in quality and benefiting from new business models that make it more accessible and affordable to those at the bottom of the pyramid. And its spread is sustainable because it is being driven by market forces, not charity.
Phones spread quickly because they provided a substitute for travel and poor infrastructure, helped traders find better prices and boosted entrepreneurship. For a fisherman or a farmer, buying a mobile phone made sense because it paid for itself within a few months. The economic case for solar lighting is even clearer: buying a lamp that charges in the sun during the day, and then produces light at night, can eliminate spending on the kerosene that fuels conventional lamps. Of the 1.4 billion people without access to grid electricity, most live in equatorial latitudes where the sun sets quickly and there is only a brief period of twilight. But solar lamps work anywhere the sun shines, even in places that are off the grid, or where grid power is expensive or unreliable.
The potential savings are huge. According to a recent study by the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, $10 billion a year is spent on kerosene in sub-Saharan Africa alone to illuminate homes, workplaces and community areas. Globally, the figure has been put at $36 billion. Flexiway, an Australian-Argentine maker of solar lamps, found in its trials in Tanzania that households often spent more than 10% of their income on kerosene, and other studies have put the figure as high as 25%. And kerosene does not merely eat up household income that could be spent on other things. It is also dangerous. Kerosene lanterns, a century-old technology, are fire hazards. The wicks smoke, the glass cracks, and the light may be too weak to read by. The World Health Organisation says the fine particles in kerosene fumes cause chronic pulmonary disease. Burning kerosene also produces climate-changing carbon-dioxide emissions.
Take a look at some of the solar lamps now available in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and their advantages are immediately apparent. Even the most basic solar lamps outperform kerosene lanterns. A typical device takes eight to ten hours to charge, and then provides four or five hours of clear, white light from high-efficiency white LEDs. The number of times solar lamps can be charged before their internal batteries wear out has improved enormously in recent years, along with their ability to cope with dust, water and being dropped. The starting price of $10 or so is still too high for the poorest customers to pay, at least up front. But as with mobile phones, prices continue to fall and novel business models are starting to provide new ways to spread the cost.
Sept 1 2012
http://www.economist.com/node/21560983