Mobile Service Usage in Developing Countries - Research Proposal Example

and Section # of Mobile service usage in developing countries especially Mobile learning and mobile financial services The General Topic Mobile phones can be classified as the invention of the century, with more and more functions being available on the cell phones people are used to performing various tasks using their mobiles (International Telecommunications Union). Today, mobile phones are being used for learning, transferring money, making payments, tracking people and what not. Therefore, the need of mobile services is ever increasing. It is relatively more in the developing countries as compared to the developed ones’ (Mobile Content Usage is Higher in the Developing Countries). It is because people in the developing countries have a lack of infrastructure and other facilities and the use of mobile phones is becoming exceedingly common (Africa Pioneers Mobile Bank Push). In countries like India and Pakistan where the rural areas lack proper banking and ATM facilities people tend to turn towards mobile phones for their banking and other financial transactions. Similarly, in places like Kenya and South America the use of mobiles for financial transactions has been there for years. Since, using cell phone is relatively easier than building the infrastructure for financial institutions; above all mobile phone infrastructure is already present in most parts of the world (Abraham). Using the existing infrastructure is always cheaper compared to developing a new one. Hence, the focus of this paper will be on the different types of mobile learning and financial services used in different developing countries of the world. Some examples include, learning using mobile phones by accessing online databases and distance learning programs. Others include conducting and tabulating research using cell phones. Financial services include paying utility bills, check outs out of stores and branchless banking. Some of these examples will be used as reference for further studies. Questions that will be answered The research will focus on the issues, importance and limitations of the various avenues where mobile phones are used in learning or in financial services. The questions that will be answered will be: What is the importance of cell phones in the mobile learning? What are the different paradigms of mobile learning? What examples are there around the world where mobile learning is being used? What are the limitations of mobile learning? Is it as effective as classroom learning? How can we enhance the mobile learning experience? How can the users be facilitated to perform mobile learning without fatigue? What are the different types of financial transactions possible using mobile as a medium? Define branchless banking and the use of mobile in facilitating branchless banking. What are the differences in between conventional banking and branchless banking? How is branchless banking more effective than conventional banking? What are the different regions of the developing world where branchless banking has been deployed? Is branchless effective? How are issues in the branchless banking system resolved? What can be done to make it more secure? How is the security of the transactions ensured? How can cell phones be used to pay utility bills or to check out of a grocery store? What are some other avenues where cell phones can be used to make payments? What are mobile web payments (WAP)? How are mobiles used for near field communication and to pay bills? What are the limitations of near field communication? What the security measures taken for WAP? Will mobile payments eventually overthrow hard cash? How are issues in mobile payments resolved? Apart from the existing cellular service infrastructure is there any other infrastructural requirements for the cell phone based payment systems? What percentages of people prefer mobile payments over conventional hard cash or plastic money payments? What is the success rate in developing countries? What are the critical success factors? The key literature and its limitations In order to substantiate our claims of mobile learning and mobile payments in the developing world, we will focus on literature that deals with cases of mobile payments and learning in the developing countries. The research will be conducted by reviewing different implementations in different regions of the world. The major regions will be Africa and Asia. In Africa, we will focus on M-Pesa case that was implemented in Kenya. M-Pesa was a branchless bank which aimed to provide people with the basic banking facilities without the need to visit a physical bank branch. The service was initially started to assist people in paying off loans without going to the banks but later when the use case was well acknowledged by the public it developed in to a branchless banking venture. In Asia, we will focus on the EasyPaisa case in Pakistan. EasyPaisa is a venture by Telenor in Pakistan which aims to provide people with easy funds transfer using mobile phones and the service to pay their utility bills without going to a bank. The concept is simple existing Telenor users have to open an EasyPaisa Mobile Account with the company, which will then be used as a bank account. Using this account a customer can pay their utility bills, transfer money and use other services using their cell phones, anytime and anywhere. The only limitation is that the area should have adequate signals, i.e. should be in the cell phone coverage area. On the other hand, the research will also focus on the use of mobile phones in learning. The use of mobile phones in education has been increasing in the past few years. M-Learning, is a relatively new term that has surfaced recently. It describes wireless learning strategies, i.e. distance learning courses. Graduate students in developing countries use cell phones for study notes, taking online quizzes, participating in online web forums etc. It is because in developing countries cell phones outnumber computers by a huge margin. And therefore, applications based on cell phones tend to do better than the ones’ for computers. Another important use of mobile learning is in assisting people to learn second languages and in delivering course curriculum to students. In countries such as Philippines, Universities have formal SMS-based mobile courses in English, Math and Sciences. Similarly, other non-formal SMS-based courses are also being designed for the students and public. The limitation of this research will be based on the reference material and the web resources available. Another limitation would be the authenticity of the resources, since most data will be available through internet blogs, which cannot be authenticated. Data will have to be filtered according to its authenticity. Main Hypothesis: In this research paper we shall try to study the impact that mobile service usage can bring about in developing countries and, in particular, look at how the use of mobile learning and mobile financial services can bring about changes in the lives of people. In order to study the impact we, need to analyze first how we can measure the impact. There are certain variables which we can measure to study the impact. Since, we are studying the impact of the use of mobile services on human lives; we need to study the variables which are related to the daily activities of people. There can be a number of factors which we can study; however, for this research, we shall restrict our investigation to a fixed number of variables. The following are the variables that we shall study for our research. These variables have also been classified under appropriate categories: Educational These are factors which will determine the impact of the use of mobile service usage in developing countries on the educational level of people. More specifically, the impact of education can be measured by the following: Number of people having basic primary education Number of people having secondary education Number of people having college degrees locally Number of people having college degrees from abroad Number of people capable of reading and writing in more than one language Number of distance learning centers in the country Economic These are factors which measure the impact of the use of mobile services in developing countries on the economic status and income levels of people. These are: Average monthly income of people Average monthly expenditure on communication methods Average monthly expenditure on non-mobile communication methods Average monthly expenditure on mobile communication methods Number of people using mobile money transfers Number of people using mobile banking services Number of people using mobile wallet services Socio Cultural Factors Social factors relate to everyday lives of people and their interactions with other members in the society, whereas, under the cultural factors, we study the impact of the use of mobile phone services on the culture of the country. In other words, we study the changes in the lifestyles and habits of the people that have taken place due to the use of mobile phone services. Thus, combining these together, we shall study how the use of mobile services affects the social and cultural lives of people. For this, we shall study the following variables: Total Number of mobile phone subscribers Average Monthly talk time by a subscriber Number of text messages sent per day by a subscriber Number of mobile phone subscribers using the following services: Reading news and updates via mobile phones Downloading ring tones and other contents via mobile phones Sending greetings through mobile phones Sending multimedia messages via mobile phones Making friends through mobile phones With these factors in consideration, we shall put up a hypothesis to the problem and then, through our research, determine whether the hypothesis proves to be true or not. The following will be our hypothesis: “The use of mobile services, particularly mobile learning and financial services, will have a positive impact on the lives of people in developing countries” Research Methodology: Research Objectives To observe and investigate the effects on the use of mobile phone services, in particular mobile learning and financial services, on the lives of the people in developing countries. The research shall focus to find values to the parameters described above. These values will be computed for two time periods – before the use of mobile phone services and after the use of mobile phone services. After we have the data collected for the two time periods, we can analyze the data to find out the changes that have occurred with the use of mobile services. Further, we shall try to interpret these changes. If the changes indicate that a positive impact has occurred on the lives of people, the hypothesis in consideration will be proven to be true. Sample Selection The hypothesis in consideration has a very broad scope. Firstly, the research is being carried out on the effects of mobile services on all developing countries. Secondly, the impact on lives of people is being implied to be on the lives of the entire population of the country. However, it is impossible to investigate on such a large population size. Hence, we shall investigate on a sample of the population. In order to select our sample, we shall carry out the process of stratified sampling. Under this, at the first step, we shall divide the entire population into different groups or stratums. Since we are researching on a number of developing countries, we shall make each stratum as a country. At the next step, we shall carry out random sampling among the stratums to get the components of our sample. Sample Size Obtaining a right sample size is not an easy task. In order to make our research successful, we need to obtain a correct sample size. First the size of the entire population will be determined (which will be total population in developing countries) and based on that, we shall use statistical principles to obtain a correct sample size. Once we have the size, we shall select the representatives from the country’s population in proportion to their contribution to the total population. Data Collection The collection of data will be a very hectic task and shall involve careful use of statistical methods for data collection. Since we have a number of factors to measure, one data collection method cannot be applied to obtain values for all the factors. Hence, depending on the data to be collected, we shall use the most appropriate method. For some factors, data can be easily obtained by secondary research through books, journals and newspaper publication. For some factors, it will be important to survey the sample and obtain values. In some other cases, we shall have to observe the population to collect data. Case Study and selection strategies: Since we are dealing with a real life problem, it is important to refer to certain case studies and incorporate them into this research. We shall look into case studies which highlight the impact that the use of mobile services have made in the lives of people and how do these services contribute in the development of the society. The following are the case studies that we shall refer to: M-Pesa in Kenya: This is a case study on the introduction of mobile financial services in Kenya by Vodafone in collaboration with a local cellular operator. The development was initially sponsored by Department for International Development (DFID) which is a the UK-based organization. The case study focuses on how the citizens were offered the service of using their existing cell phone connections to carry out basic financial transactions. G-cash in Philippines: This is another case study on the use of mobile phones to provide ‘mobile wallet’ services to subscribers. This was initiated by Globe Telecom in Philippines. The case looks into the impact this has brought on the country’s population. Easy Paisa in Pakistan: Pakistan is another developing country which recently witnessed the launch a new mobile phone service for transferring money and paying bills. Initiated by Norway based Telenor, the service is in its initial phase and aims to create a significant impact on the lives of people. Bibliography Abraham, R. "Mobile phones and economic development." The international conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development . Berkeley, 2006. 48-56. Africa Pioneers Mobile Bank Push. 09 April 2010 . EasyPaisa. EasyPaisa Mobile Account. 2009. . Guillaume Barberousse. "THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE TELEPHONY: RESULTS FROM." Private Sector & Development (November 2009): Issue 4. International Telecommunications Union. World Telecommunication Indicators Database. Geneva, 2008. Kharif, Olga. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/564/1071. August 2008. . Mobile Content Usage is Higher in the Developing Countries. 09 April 2010 . Motlik, Scott. Mobile Learning in Developing Nations. June 2008. . Muto, M., Yamano, T. "The Impact of Mobile Phone Coverage Expansion on Market Participation: Panel Data Evidence from Uganda." World Development, 2009. Ovum Research & Consultancy. "M-Pesa and Vodafone: mobile payments case study." December 2008. . Peters, Mark. Mobile Phone Technologies in Education and schools. 9 February 2007. . Pickens, Mark and Brian Richardson. Mobile wallets and virtual currencies. . Qiang, C. Z. W. and C.M. Rossotto. "Economic Impacts of Broadband." Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact. Washington D.C: World Bank, Washington D.C, 2009. 35-50. Utiba Mobility. Globe G-Cash. . Zibi, Guy. "The African Mobile Phone Market: Beyond the Boom Phase, Between the Promise and Uncertainty of Maturity." Private Sector & Development (2009): Issue 4. Read More