Baobab

IN RICH countries the advertising slogan above has become a description of reality: online stores for applications that run on smartphones now boast hundreds of thousands of apps and billions of downloads. More surprisingly, the words have started to ring true in the poor world as well. Since mobile phones have become widespread there, services that go beyond voice and text messages are multiplying—facilitating everything from transferring money to identifying fake goods and logistics to the mapping of natural disasters.

To be sure, these services still only number in the hundreds and most are delivered via simple mobile phones. But should they take off, their impact could be momentous for the development of poor countries. They make bad physical infrastructure less of a problem; they connect the world’s poor to the digital economy; they help them learn; they give them a voice; they cut out middle-men. Yet for mobile services to have the truly transformative effect they might, aid organisations, telecoms operators and governments have to get behind them.

Unfortunately, most of these services, however promising, appear stuck in the pilot phase. Few seem able to scale up enough to really make an impact. They are too dependent on donor money. They have neither the capital nor the technology to grow beyond their initial market. Worst of all, their founders often lack the business skills to market the offerings effectively and make money from them.

Ultimately, it will be up to clever entrepreneurs to overcome these barriers. But others must help. Start with aid organisations. Their seed money is often needed to get a service off the ground. Yet instead of creating yet another "m-services project", as many do, they should focus on funding much-needed research on the impact of mobile services and on spreading knowledge to stimulate entrepreneurship.

Telecoms operators, too, need to change their approach. They often try to do everything themselves. Instead they should turn their networks in to platforms on top of which others can build services. This would include launching app stores and providing basic services that more complex offerings need, such as payment and identity. Operators should also support mobile services with reduced rates. In Bangladesh, for instance, carriers agreed to halve the price of airtime for English lessons people can listen to on mobile phones. As a result, the service, called BBC Janala and sponsored by the BBC World Service Trust, has now 1.2m regular users.

Yet it is governments that must do most. In many countries, mobile communications are still much more pricey that they could be, making them unaffordable for many. In some, not enough radio spectrum is made available, in particular for next-generation networks. In others, governments pile on taxes; in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, the ratio of mobile-related tax to operator revenues exceeds 30%. Another reason for high rates is that in some countries there is not enough competition. Incumbent operators are often the only player at the table with a well-trained and well-paid staff—and are thus able to shape telecoms policy. In Kenya, for instance, rates have dropped steeply since Bharthi Airtel, which pioneered rock-bottom rates in India, has aggressively moved into this market (although there needs to be some regulation of speed as well as price).

At the same time, governments should use mobile services themselves whenever they can, not least to make their bureaucracies more efficient. In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, a clever combination of a mobile phone, a fingerprint reader and a small printer is used to disburse welfare payments and pensions directly—cutting out the middleman, often a corrupt local official who takes a cut. Governments should also support the development of “innovation hubs”, such as the iHub in Nairobi, which has become the place to be for many African start-ups.

Mobile services are certainly no cure-all for the ills of poor countries. But they could provide them with a huge boost, if more were done to remove the obstacles to their wider adoption.