Young man showing smartphone screen to elderly women, all smiling during an informal gathering.

Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit

Empowering millions with mobile internet skills

Welcome to the GSMA Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit (MISTT)

Today more than 3 billion people worldwide are not using mobile internet, despite being within the footprint of a mobile broadband network. Affordability remains a key barrier, yet a lack of the essential digital skills required to use mobile internet as well as awareness of internet use cases prevent the unconnected from using and benefitting from mobile internet.

To address this barrier, the GSMA developed the Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit (MISTT). MISTT is a set of free resources for teaching people the basic mobile digital skills they need to access and use mobile internet. The toolkit uses a ‘train the trainer’ approach and consists of short lessons available in PDF and video format that can be easily adapted to local needs and languages and delivered to customers in a range of different ways.

Drawing on our experience supporting the training of over 75 million people with MISTT, we can support your digital skills efforts in a variety of ways, including advice on strategy, best practices for reaching women, monitoring and evaluation analysis support, troubleshooting during a campaign, ToT sessions, promotion of impact, and more.

Get in touch at [email protected].

The challenge

Worldwide, more than 3 billion people are covered by a mobile network but do not use it. A lack of digital skills remains a key barrier to benefitting from mobile internet.

The solution

MISTT is a set of free resources to educate people on the basics of mobile internet including what it is, why it is relevant, and how to use it safely, to provide them with the basic digital skills needed to use mobile internet effectively.

The impact

MISTT has so far been used to train more than 75 million people across over 40 countries with basic mobile digital skills. MISTT is proven to increase customer adoption and usage of mobile internet.

Explore the GSMA Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit

Click on each of the four tiles below to discover all the modules of the toolkit.

A woman in a pink beanie and red jacket focused on her smartphone.

Guidance for Trainers

Close-up of a mobile phone

Popular Apps & Websites

Women looking at a mobile phone

Internet
Fundamentals

A man looks at his mobile phone in a shop surrounded by colorful accessories.

Mobile Internet
Use Cases

Quickly find relevant training content in the language you need.

Click on a highlighted country to find out about the MISTT implementation in that country and its impact.

Key MISTT implemented with data MISTT implemented
  • Bangladesh
  • Benin
  • Cameroon
  • Rwanda
  • Uganda
Bangladesh
MISTT implemented by:
228 %
Increase in mobile internet usage

Mobile internet use increased by 228% among trained users.

42 %
began using mobile internet

42% started using mobile internet during the pilot phase.

143 %
Increase in data revenue

Data revenue increased by 143%; and of those who had not used data on their Banglalink SIM before.

Benin
MISTT implemented by:
427 %
Increase in data use

After the pilot in Benin, the average monthly mobile internet use per trained customer increased from 15 MB to 79 MB over a four-month period, an increase of 427%. Uptake was highest among smartphone users, with monthly data usage soaring from 57 MB to 322 MB, an increase of 465%. Similarly, data use among feature phone users more than tripled.

24 %
Increase in data subscribers

In addition to higher data use, the total number of active data subscribers (ADS) increased by over 300,000 (before and after the pilot), a 24% increase.

311 %
Increase in mobile data revenue

Across all device types, monthly mobile internet data ARPU increased four-fold, from CFA 26 to CFA 107, an increase of 311%. Smartphone users showed even more impressive uptake, from CFA 88 to CFA 423, a 380% increase.

Cameroon
MISTT implemented by:
231 %
Increase in data use

After the three-month pilot, average monthly mobile internet use increased from 42 MB to 139 MB among trained customers across all devices (231% increase). This uptake was significantly higher for smartphone users, with average monthly data usage rising from 80 MB to 337 MB, an increase of 321%.

74 %
Increase in mobile data revenue

As a result of the pilot, the monthly data ARPU of trained customers increased significantly, from CFA 99 to CFA 172 (74% increase) for all users, and from CFA 103 to CFA 269 (161% increase) for smartphone users.

Rwanda
MISTT implemented by:
77 %
Increased data usage

77% of MISTT trained customers increased their data usage.

15 %
Increase in data subscribers

MISTT trained sales agents managed to increase the number of new data subscribers by 15%.

240 %
Quarterly ROI

MISTT had an ROI of 13% in a month and 240% in a quarter.

Uganda
MISTT implemented by:
3 X
Increase in average data usage

Mobile internet data usage tripled following a mobile-related digital skills training pilot delivered to mostly literate customers who had at least a secondary school degree.

1.1
additional persons benefitted

New knowledge and skills reached more than double those trained during the pilot. For every customer trained, 1.1 additional persons benefited from new mobile internet knowledge and skills.

Resources

Women looking at a mobile phone

Developing mobile digital skills in low- and middle-income countries

This report provides four key steps for developing strategies and interventions to drive mobile digital skills development among men and women in LMICs, with key insights and learnings from our research.

Two women in a rural setting, one holding a smartphone and the other with a hoe over her shoulder, looking at the phone screen together.

Multiplying the impact of mobile internet skills training

This case study assesses the impact of MTN Uganda’s pilot customer education campaign using MISTT. The findings demonstrate the potential of MISTT to create a digital skills multiplier effect.

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Understanding people’s mobile digital skills needs

This report explores the digital skills training landscape in India and Ghana and the role of mobile internet in supporting people’s needs, highlighting the importance of targeted strategies to support the development of mobile digital skills.

Woman standing on a beach looking at her smartphone with a comb in her hand.

A needs-based approach to mobile digital skills training

This report highlights learnings on implementing impactful digital skills training in India and Ghana, including the effectiveness of learning content and training delivery channels. It also identifies important contextual and country differences.

A woman in a patterned blue hijab smiles while being photographed with a smartphone. She stands under a rustic shelter, holding a small green container. Various labeled bottles are on a table in front of her. Background includes a wall and nearby building.

Delivering digital skills training for impact: Learnings and insights from Sierra Leone

This report examines the implementation of MISTT in Sierra Leone, evaluating its effectiveness in improving digital skills acquisition, while highlighting key insights and areas for improvement. 

Companies that have implemented MISTT

The MISTT has already been implemented by the following organisations:

Airtel logo with red and white color scheme.

Airtel

Arifu logo

Arifu

Axian logo

Axian Group

Logo of axiata, a telecommunications company, featuring stylized text and geometric shapes.

Axiata

Logo of a blue square with a stylized white megaphone and an orange dot.

ayoba

Banglalink logo

Banglalink

Buffalo Grid logo

Buffalo Grid

Dialog logo

Dialog

Facebook logo with a blue gradient design.

Facebook

Grameenphone logo

Grameenphone

Huawei logo

Huawei Kenya

Logo of the internet society kyrgyzstan chapter.

Internet Society – Kyrgyzstan Chapter

Jazz logo

Jazz

Mastercard logo featuring two overlapping circles, one red on the right and one yellow on the left, with the word "mastercard" in lowercase black letters beneath the circles. The design is simple and modern, conveying the brand's identity.

JazzCash

Logo of reliance jio, an indian telecommunications company.

Jio

KaiOS logo

KaiOS

MTN logo

MTN Group

NITDA logo

National Information and Technology Development Agency Nigeria

Ooredoo logo

Ooredoo

Orange logo with trademark symbol.

Orange

Logo of the national commission on the status of women, featuring stylized human figures and hands in orange and purple.

Pakistan National Committee on the Status of Women

Logo of reliance foundation featuring an abstract human figure and a stylized plant element.

Reliance Foundation

A colorful logo with the word "robi" in red lowercase letters.

Robi

Telenor logo

Telenor Pakistan

Tony Blair Institute logo

Tony Blair Institute

Colorful tiktok logo with a gradient background.

Tunisia Telecom

Ufone telecommunications company logo.

Ufone

UNCDF Logo

UNCDF Uganda

UNDP logo

UNDP Indonesia

Veon logo

Veon

Vodacom logo

Vodacom

Wave Money logo

Wave Money Myanmar

WFP logo

World Food Program Somalia

Zain logo

ZAIN

Yellow triangular shape with rounded edges, featuring the word "Час" written in bold blue Cyrillic script.

Yas

Contact

If you have any questions or would like to learn about the support we can offer you to roll out the MISTT in your market, please get in touch.

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Our donors and partners

This initiative is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Swedish International Development Office (Sida) and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and is supported by the GSMA and its members.

Thank you to our partners: Zain for providing the Arabic translation; Zonful for providing the Shona and Ndebele translations; ScholarX for translating the videos into Pidgin, Yoruba and Igbo; Orenda for translating the videos into Urdu; WFP Somalia for providing the Somalia translation; Dialog Sri Lanka for providing the Sinhala and Tamil translations; Internet Society Kyrgyzstan Chapter for the Russian and Kyrgyz translations; and Jio and MTN for partnering with us to create the Internet Use Cases India and Ghana videos respectively.

Dialog logo
Logo of the internet society kyrgyzstan chapter.
Logo of reliance jio, an indian telecommunications company.
A logo with the initials "mtn" inside an oval on a yellow background.
Orenda logo
ScholarX logo
WFP logo
Zain logo
Company logo for "zonful energy" featuring a stylized house and energy symbols, emphasizing solar power solutions.