BOP Markets: Mobile Telephony (Excerpt from the WRI Report)

Perhaps the strongest and most dramatic BOP success story is mobile telephony.

Between 2000 and 2005 the number of mobile subscribers in developing
countries grew more than fivefold—to nearly 1.4 billion. Growth
was rapid in all regions, but fastest in sub-Saharan Africa—Nigeria’s subscriber
base grew from 370,000 to 16.8 million in just four years (World
Bank 2006b). Household surveys confirm substantial and growing mobile
phone use in the BOP population, which has clearly benefited from the
access mobile phones provide to jobs, to medical care, to market prices, to
family members working away from home and the remittances they can
send, and, increasingly, to financial services (Vodafone 2005).

A strong value proposition for low-income consumers has translated
into financial success for mobile companies. Celtel, an entrepreneurial
company operating in some of the poorest and least stable countries in
Africa, went from start-up to telecom giant in just seven years. Acquired
for US$3.4 billion in 2005, the company now has operations in 15 African
countries and licenses covering more than 30% of the continent.

[Read the full report here]