This report seeks to frame and assess the current landscape of mobile phone and other data usage by mobile services providers operating in emerging markets that serve underserved customer segments, otherwise termed Mobile for Development (M4D) services. There is a growing interest in this area of M4D as the data captured by the mobile platform offers visibility on many aspects of a mobile service’s operations. This data can be used to evaluate the performance of a service, create recommendations for improvements that drive scale, and create a richer picture of underserved consumers who are otherwise hard to reach and for whom little data currently exists. The key findings of our research and analysis is that mobile service usage data is largely a “missed opportunity” across the M4D sector and that more can – and should – be done to support organisations in this area. This will enable them to make better use of their data as well as advance the knowledge base of the wider industry in the field of data analytics applied to M4D services.
This document was originally produced as part of the former Mobile for Development Impact programme.