Maximizing the Productive Use of Mobile Phone Technologies for the Public Good

• Main Author: Temple, Chris
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2012
• Subjects: mobile phones; economic development; the public good; regulation; poverty alleviation; International Relations
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/463; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1472&context=cmc_theses

The ability of the mobile phone to reach and connect people like no technology before it, coupled with its productive potential to benefit private industry, governments, and the poor, makes it an extremely powerful tool for economic development – a tool that is worth investing in. Since their introduction, cell phones have demonstrated the ability to yield for the public good through improved information exchange and access to health care and financial services. In order to realize this potential, the private and public sectors must cooperate to improve regulations to encourage healthy competition and new capital investment while facilitating education in cell phone use.