79 rural villages across 10 African countries will be connected up to the mobile networks, with the hope that it will help to improve healthcare and education, as well as boosting the local economy. This follows a 2005 study which showed that an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 people an increase economic growth by 0.6%
The plan to extend the mobile networks coverage is part of the UN Millennium Villages programme, which started in 2004. The first Millennium Village was in Sauri, Kenya, and there are now a total of 79, including villages in Mali, Uganda, Senegal and Ethiopia.
The Millennium Villages are located in areas described by the UN as hunger hotspots, where chronic hunger is widespread, as well as a high occurrence of disease, lack of decent medical care, and very poor infrastructure.
Dr Jeffrey Sachs, a Special Advisor to the UN Secretary, Said:
Building the mobile infrastructure will allow for improvements in healthcare, such as an emergency phone number. We also see this as critical for education, where the kids will not only learn IT skills but will also have access to a world of information.”
He also said schemes could be put in place to trade agricultural information as well as allowing people to have bank accounts and make micro payments for goods such as fertilizers.
The infrastructure, as well as solar chargers for phones, is being provided free of charge by Ericsson. They will mostly install a 2G network, capable of handling voice calls and providing data download speeds of around 200 kbps.
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[Source: The UK Mobile Phone Blog]
