How has mobile telephony and latest services and technologies impacted the social fabric of AME societies?
Richard Choi: Mobile telephony has had a massive impact on society in the AME region. In most countries, deploying mobile networks makes a massive contribution to that country’s GDP. Mobile phones enable communication, which is at the heart of social, political and commercial development of all societies. From the simplest benefit of allowing people to communicate anywhere on the continent to the empowerment and enablement of services, such as micropayments and mobile financial services, mobile telephony has been a major contributor to the emergence of AME as an economic power. Aniket Deuskar: Mobile telephony really does help integrate the rural poor into the economy, by increasing their ability to buy and sell goods at fair market prices and by reducing time and real costs in moving around the country to trade and to repatriate earnings. These mobile money transactions, as Richard says, have really impacted the social environment, through the simple ability to enable airtime transfer
