Julia Burchell, Community, Collaboration & Partnerships Manager, GSMA M4D Impact
Thanks to widespread and rapid adoption, mobile technology is uniquely positioned to drive economic, environmental and social change at a global scale. Mobile enabled, social innovation services offering users access to services in areas such as employment, health, education and finance will play a significant role in effecting this change. Harnessing mobile network operator (MNO) assets over and above the vital, basic connectivity they offer – assets such as billing relationships with large subscriber bases, marketing channels and distribution networks – will be key to realising the full potential of mobile for commercial and social impact.
While Latin America and the Caribbean has seen significant economic development over the last couple of decades, many people continue to lack access to quality essential services. However, 80% of the population do have access to, or individually own, a mobile phone and the technology offers a channel through which access to financial, utilities, employment, education and other services can be offered to the underserved at scale. For MNOs in the region, this also presents an opportunity. Declining average revenue per user (ARPU) and subscriber growth means that they will need to find stronger, more innovative strategies.
Currently just over 1 in 2 people in the region is a mobile subscriber (53%), with the vast majority of the unconnected in lower-income segments. Future growth for MNOs will rely on providing more value for lower income- consumers and new types of services will be required to acquire these new customers. We believe that these customers will need to see very clearly how paying for mobile services will have a positive benefit on their lives and therefore offer them real value for money. GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) Impact is working to help MNOs harness this opportunity and to understand the needs of this customer segment. We work closely with MNO representatives operating in value added services (VAS) at the operational level to support them in developing innovative, commercial VAS that offer users social benefits.
We aim to understand better the challenges faced by those working in mobile VAS and how third party providers of social innovation content and services can best work with operators for mutual benefit. Through a survey of 52 MNO representatives, whose remit covered the large majority of Latin America and the Caribbean, we found that:
- i. When launching VAS, MNOs are facing a lack of proven business models presented by vendors
- ii. MNOs incorporate social and environmental impact into their business decisions but are interested in learning how to do more
- iii. MNOs see the opportunity to provide commercial services that also contribute to addressing their countries’ socioeconomic challenges
Given the difficulties in discovering commercial opportunities, it is important that Latin American and Caribbean MNOs remain open to innovative opportunities in sectors, such as employment, health and financial access, which they may not have previously considered. There remains significant room for MNO involvement to grow.