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Technology creates economic opportunities

Posted: 01/04/10 by Mobile Future Team

The Duluth News Tribune in Minnesota recently published an op-ed piece by Mobile Future Advisor Diane Smith. The piece details Diane’s success as an entrepreneur in rural America, and the many ways that technology helps small business and promotes economic opportunity.

The wireless sector employs nearly 2.7 million Americans - from applications developers to retail store workers to network engineers - and contributes $100 billion annually to our nation's economy. In the last year alone, wireless companies have invested more than $20 billion in networks that are expanding opportunities for the next generation of connected businesses.

You can read the rest of Diane’s op-ed here.

White House Official: Wireless is ‘A Powerful Tool to Address’ Society’s Challenges

Posted: 11/02/09 by Allison Remsen

"We're in the adolescence of the mobile and wireless revolution," said White House policy expert Tom Kalil, as he began his discussion of wireless issues and federal policy at today's Mobile Future luncheon in Washington.

Kalil, the Deputy Director for Policy in the Office of Science and Technology, said the Obama Administration understood and respected the immense economic and social benefits of a burgeoning wireless industry.  "We want to create the right policy environment for private sector investment," he said, adding that "[Wireless] innovation is a powerful tool to address the broad range of challenges we face."

As an example, he cited mobile healthcare - "a really promising area."  He also cited the power of wireless in connection with other advances such as nanotechnology, which will soon put the entire contents of the Library of Congress on a device the size of a sugar cube.

At a subsequent panel discussion, Debbie Goldman, an economist with the Communications Workers of America, discussed the linkage between wireless investment and union jobs.  "There are 45,000 union workers in the wireless industry," she said. "Telecom networks are good employment opportunities that offer good career jobs for [union workers]."

Also on the panel was Citi Investment Research analyst Michael Rollins, who discussed the relationship between industry investment and government regulation. "In the telecom industry, you deal with long-life assets," he said. That makes changes in regulation a cause for great concern.

Also presenting at the luncheon were economists Robert Hahn and Hal Singer, who discussed the economic implications of exclusive mobile handset contracts between manufacturers and wireless carriers.  To access their paper, please click here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1477042

Harnessing the Mobile Revolution

Posted: 10/27/08 by Jonathan Spalter

If Tom Kalil has his way, mobile technology and services will be at the heart of American global development policy.

So says his visionary and timely new report, "Harnessing the Mobile Revolution," published recently by NDN, the innovative Washington D.C. policy group.

The next Administration, says Kalil, a science and technology policy advisor at Cal Berkeley, has an unprecedented opportunity to leverage advances and investments in the mobile sector to catalyze critical development goals such as providing safe drinking water, new vaccines, therapies, point-of-care diagnostics, clean energy, and improved crops that are more productive, nutritious, and drought-resistant. And not a moment too soon, he warns, as to date, the U.S. government has largely overlooked the power of mobile services to help improve the human condition. It is time, argues Kalil, for the blinders to come off.

Says Kalil: "Even in the absence of enlightened U.S. government leadership, mobile services will become more ubiquitous, affordable and versatile. But the missed opportunity will be to leverage this large and growing private sector investment (in mobile technology and services) for public purposes, such as ensuring fair elections, helping a community health worker save the life of a mother or young child, and giving a farmer or small business owner access to the credit they need to build a path out of poverty."

Kalil argues that policy-makers in Washington have a historic but limited window of opportunity to work in partnership with the private sector to ensure that mobile technologies increasingly can be agents of productive social, economic and political development. The use of mobile technologies has exploded, particularly in the developing world, where there are now more subscribers than in the developed world. Some forecast that there will be over 5 billion mobile subscribers in the next two years - a fact that has encouraged the development economist Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University to conclude that "the cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development."

Here are some of the statistics the report cites:

• A rise of 10 mobile phones per 100 people is associated with a growth in GDP of 0.6 percent;
• Every 1 percent increase in mobile penetration boosts foreign direct investment as a share of GDP by 0.5 percent;
• Telecommunications investment in African countries such as Kenya and Senegal accounts for more than 10 percent of private sector investment in fixed capital;
• The mobile industry has created 3.6 million jobs in India, not only through mobile operators, but through retail sales of airtime, handsets and SIM cards;
• Chinese workers who travel for their work (e.g. taxi-cab drivers, plumbers, salespeople) have been able to reduce traveling by 6 percent - a productivity payoff worth $33 billion in 2005.

So what is to be done?

First and foremost, Kalil recommends that the U.S. government should establish new public/private partnerships to ensure that advances in mobile technologies and services - especially in the areas of public health, education, civil engagement, human rights, and financial services - can be more systematically accessed by communities which need them most. Creative examples of these partnerships in mobile technology have been implemented in countries like Zambia and Kenya. It is time for American engagement and leadership as well.

Second, official donors - the U.S. included - must direct more investment to increase the number of developing country entrepreneurs, programmers, researchers, government agencies, and non-profit organizations that are capable of designing and implementing mobile applications that address local needs. Kalil also argues that the private sector itself can do more to support the use of its technologies and applications as vehicles for positive development.

Last, Kalil argues that governments must move quickly to lower or eliminate the punitive taxes that have unwisely and disproportionately targeted the mobile industry so the industry can flourish, entrepreneurs can innovate, productive new jobs can be created, and consumers can gain access to better and less expensive services. Mobile and wireless technology is not a luxury and should not be taxed as such.

Indeed, as Kalil's important paper presciently establishes, mobile innovation is now more than a necessity; it increasingly is a vital vehicle for improving the lives, health, and well-being of the least powerful around the world.

No penalty for paradise

Posted: 07/03/08 by Diane Smith

I recently had the honor of being profiled in a new Montana magazine called 406 Woman. The title of the article was "No Penalty for Paradise", reflecting an ongoing discussion between me and my fellow entrepreneurs in rural America about whether living in a desirable location was inconsistent with the idea of successful business formation.  For many of us, transplants from urban life, when we first arrived in our new communities, we questioned whether building a business beyond a small sole proprietorship was realistic.  We had the same concerns as any new business owner - staffing, funding, lines of credit, healthcare, and so forth.  But added to those concerns were other worries specific to our locations - Can we hire qualified staff?  Will they work hard?   Do we have the necessary communications infrastructure?  Can we get flights to required destinations?   Will our infrastructure costs and capabilities allow us to remain competitive with businesses located in more accessible locations?     

Question by question we figured it out.  Staffing was the most pleasant surprise.  Our employees want to live here, resulting in a highly qualified, truly dedicated team.  Funding and lines of credit were a challenge because investors simply weren't familiar with investments in remote locations.  But, even though money players would rather you were right next door, if the business plan works, the money will come.  It's amazing the number of angel investor networks and strategic investors available to businesses in rural areas - never easy, but manageable.  Healthcare costs were staggering no matter where we were located but not particularly higher here than elsewhere.   Flights were and still are a problem.  But, because flights were challenging, we relied even more heavily on our communications infrastructure.  And the communications infrastructure is what truly allowed us to finally conclude that there is "No Penalty for Paradise". 

For rural communities, distance has too often been a significant business challenge.   But, as a result of advances in technology and infrastructure over the past decade, those of us living the rural life can now "reach out and touch" our colleagues nationwide and even internationally in a cost-effective and service-effective fashion.  In my hometown in MT, we have great cell phone service with national calling plans.  We have wireline DSL and cable broadband.  We have more Wi-Fi'd coffee shops (all with free Wi-Fi)  than I can find when I'm back in the city.    We also have video conferencing facilities for hire if we need them.  As a result, we can stay on-line, talk live, and stay in touch with our customers, employees, vendors, and the myriad of others with whom it takes to launch a successful business.    It's truly remarkable the difference that our communications advances over the past decade have made for businesses - so much so that we are now planning for our next title - "Rural America, Open for Business".      

Changing world of wireless

Posted: 06/10/08 by Jo-Anne Basile

The world of wireless is changing.  Ten years ago, it was inconceivable that you could check email, surf the Internet, listen to music and play games using only your phone.  Today, you need only look at the iPhone, Blackberry Curve or Palm Treo to realize that you can do all of the activities listed above and so much more.  The advances in cell phone utility is just starting to realize its potential, and experts forecast that over the next decade, the wireless industry will continue to boom.  

Forecasters predict that:

• By the year 2018, wireless broadband technology is expected to generate approximately $860 billion in additional gross domestic product. 
• In the next eight years, the projected total value of wireless broadband and mobile voice services is expected to exceed $427 billion. 
• By 2016, the US is projected to have 81.9 million enterprise users, with 83% using wireless broadband.

These figures are all from the recently-released Ovum Report.  The Ovum Report is a study funded by the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association), which focused on the impact that the use and deployment of wireless broadband technology currently has, and is projected to have on the U.S. economy. The 2008 study was a follow-up to the 2005 Ovum Report, which studied the macroeconomic impact of the U.S. industry.

These findings affirm that while wireless technology is important to most Americans, its continued growth is also vital to the U.S. economy.  Economic gains were most evident in the healthcare and small business sectors.  According to the report, "in 2005, productivity improvements due to use of mobile broadband solutions across the U.S. health care industry were valued at $6.9 billion."  That number is expected to triple by 2016.  While healthcare has witnessed big gains, the increase in productivity due to mobile wireless services carries across the board and was valued at $185 billion in 2005. And despite current economic difficulties, wireless technology has enabled businesses to increase efficiency and productivity benefitting the economy.   

With figures quoted in the billions, I sometimes find it hard to wrap my head around the reality of the situation.   However, when I look at my cell phone, I realize how far the industry has come. What was once a brick-sized calling device is now a computer weighing only ounces.  Yet, this realization is dwarfed by the enormous potential that the wireless industry has in store for the future.  What is technologically inconceivable today may be the reality of tomorrow.

Starting a Revolution

Posted: 03/11/08 by Jo-Anne Basile

It was a cool day in October 1981 when they flipped the switch in Chicago, beginning communications revolution for Americans, which we call cell phones.

It boggles the mind to think about where we've come in these 27 years. The number of users is staggering: today there are nearly 250 million users in the U.S. and 3.3 billion wireless devices in use on the planet, and with more than 1,000 activated each minute. What's even more amazing is how many different uses of wireless devices we have today. In a little more than 25 years the use of wireless devices has evolved from the simple voice-communicating, the mundane-to the sophisticated transport of critical data and video - medical, financial and more. Wireless also has the unique honor of providing the link that will fuel economic development for nations throughout the world. Yes, indeed, given the opportunity, humans have discovered endless ways to make use of wireless technology. Although the illustrations are too numerous to list, if we focus on a few, it helps put the communications revolution squarely in place.

A particularly good example of how wireless creates change is how it can jumpstart lesser developed nations into the global marketplace. Confronted with the need for a reliable communications network where little or no infrastructure existed, countries have turned to wireless as the most efficient and economical network to build quickly. This happened in the mid-1990's when many of the Eastern block nations, newly freed from the old Soviet Union, turned to wireless as the only communications tool that could link businesses with vital opportunities. Now, with the ability to connect reliably and quickly to the outside world economic opportunities previously closed off became open.

In less than three decades, about half the world's population uses wireless technology in big and small ways every day. Wireless is not only a revolution in technology but it has created a revolution wherever it has gone. Stay tuned to this spot as we explore more of the "revolution" that wireless built in future blogs.