Mobiles in Africa – We Need The Eggs

At the end of the movie Annie Hall, Woody Allen says,

this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, ‘Doc, uh, my brother’s crazy, he thinks he’s a chicken,’ and uh, the doctor says, ‘well why don’t you turn him in?’ And the guy says, ‘I would, but I need the eggs.’ Well, I guess that’s [...]

SMS Costs in Africa – 2008

Courtesy of the ITU’s Measuring the Information Society Report, here is a list of SMS charges in thirty-eight African countries.  The costs are listed in U.S. dollars and in Purchasing Power Parity dollars.  Interesting to note in the below that there is an order of magnitude difference between the cheapest and most expensive SMS in [...]

A Modest Proposal – The 1 cent SMS

I am filled today, as is often enough the case these days, with a sense of righteous indignation.  In a meeting earlier today, Dominic Cull (firebrand lawyer for the forces of telecommunications good in South Africa) pointed out the obvious.  He said that one of the single most important things mobile operators could do to [...]