One well-known example of poor-country innovation is M-PESA, a mobile money-transfer system that started in Kenya and is catching on in Asia.More recently an Indian entrepreneur created Hike, a mobile-messaging app like WhatsApp and Viber, which lets smartphone users send messages using data connections, bypassing sms charges.
Fortuitously Jan Koum, of WhatsApp, the messaging service for which Facebook is paying $19 billion was also at MWC. Messaging apps have gutted operators of the revenue they once enjoyed from SMS messaging: rather than pay for an SMS, users spend a bit of their data allowances instead.
Those weren't lazily phoned in or sent via SMS, either; you had to write out your selections (the 0055 number came later) and post them.
This will require you to type in a code (usually sent to your phone via SMS) when you try to log in to your account from a new location.
Now Arnold wants to go further: "How do we incorporate SMS and Skype to genuinely change behaviour?
From free instant messaging services that removed the relatively high cost of sending an SMS to the development of local applications to solve local problems, the internet and its access platforms are at the heart of emerging businesses.
Each animal is registered with the service, which then sends SMS reminders to the farmer about milking schedules, immunisation dates and tips about nutrition and breeding or information about local vets or artificial insemination providers.
At the lower end of the scale, researchers at Oxford and elsewhere have shown that SMS and voice-calls can be used to assess mental health status, deliver talking therapies (eg cognitive behavioural therapy) and stimulate behavioural change.
Deloitte's report also raised the question of how text message entrants were "factored in" to the competition, given the researchers' approach to selecting winners, noting that one SMS entrant won on one of the seven occasions.
Mobile devices can link health workers with ministries: In Malawi, Rwanda and elsewhere, use of mobile platforms such as SMS messaging has greatly improved communication between community health workers and their health ministries.
In 2008 Tata Motors switched the site for the plant to make the Nano, a small car, from West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat after Ratan Tata, boss of the conglomerate parent, received an SMS message from Mr Modi offering him a factory-ready plot for the firm and its suppliers.
