Extending cell phone usage to very low income populations

In the late 1990s, the conventional wisdom among industry analysts was that mobile phone penetration in the Philippines could not exceed 20 percent to 25 percent on account of the country's relatively low per capita incomes. By end-2007, however, over 60 percent of Filipinos had become mobile phone users. Nazareno attributed the Philippines' success in promoting the usage of mobile phones to the introduction of various innovations in cellular technologies and business models. He cited the introduction of prepaid services in the 1990s which Smart has aggressively promoted. "This innovation opened the door to just everyone -- students, housewives, employees, blue collar workers, farmers, fishermen and families of overseas worker," he said. More