GSMA Launches Mobile and Development Intelligence Portal

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• Publié par: gsm-conference-limited
• Nombre de lectures: 37
• Langue: English

Extrait

GSMA Launches Mobile and Development

Intelligence Portal

PR Newswire

LONDON, June 13, 2012

- New Initiative Provides Open Data for the Mobile Industry in the Developing

World

LONDON

,

June 13, 2012

/PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA today launched the Mobile

and Development Intelligence (MDI) project in conjunction with Omidyar

Network the philanthropic investment firm established by eBay founder Pierre

Omidyar. Through an open access portal, MDI will offer data and analysis to

support business decision-making and clarify the evidence of the socio-

economic impact of the mobile industry in the developing world. MDI will

provide any user with over 70 metrics and the ability to tabulate, graph, map

and export the datasets with country-level dashboards available for more than

140 developing world countries. MDI will continually add new datasets

throughout the project and users can add data and content to the portal.

"The GSMA believes that open access to high-quality data will improve business

decision-making, increase total investment from both the commercial mobile

industry and the development sector, and amplify economic, environmental

and social impact," said Chris Locke, Managing Director, GSMA Development

Fund. "The GSMA is uniquely positioned to aggregate and host data and

analysis on behalf of our mobile operator members and the wider industry. This

open data portal will provide for the first time a complete landscape of the

organisations and mobile services that are influencing and changing lives in

developing populations throughout the world."

"Omidyar Network is proud to partner with the GSMA on the MDI portal to help

foster a thriving mobile ecosystem in the developing world," said Raj Gollamudi,

director of investments, Omidyar Network. "Using the power and ubiquity of the

mobile platform to empower individuals with information and opportunities to

improve their lives is core to Omidyar Network's mission. We believe the mobile

industry in emerging markets needs a credible and trusted source of market

data to enable greater collaboration across various sectors and drive

incremental investments in the most promising opportunities. In addition to

becoming the industry's de-facto data platform, we envision MDI becoming a

vibrant community hub for all players in the ecosystem."

Rich Data Landscape

A challenge facing mobile industry stakeholders in the developing world is the

lack of publically available data and analysis to support their business decision

making. MDI will fill this information gap and will aggregate and host publically

available data from multiple sources such as the GSMA, the United Nations, the

World Bank, the wider mobile industry and development organisations.

MDI hosts a landscape of more than 800 organisation profiles; in addition, over

750 products and services have been summarised, with an initial focus on

mobile money and mobile health. Users can see these organisations, products

and services on a global map and search for particular types of organisations.

This will allow stakeholders to identify each other, understand each other's

offerings and objectives, and form collaborations and partnerships.

There are an estimated 6.6 billion mobile connections globally, with the

developing world providing the majority of global connections growth. The

industry is moving beyond basic voice to the use of mobile to deliver services in

adjacent sectors such as agriculture, education, financial services and health.

As the most widely adopted technology in history, mobile is uniquely positioned

to drive economic, environmental and social benefit. MDI will help increase this

momentum by providing a robust, data-rich, user-friendly and freely available

portal that offers a new level of global visibility.

Locke continued, "By helping to increase the level of investment and the

number of products and services offered that prove to be fundamentally

valuable to developing populations, MDI will have an impact on the livelihoods

of millions of people in the developing world."

Note to Editors:

MDI has also completed impact pathways for mobile money, mobile health and

women and mobile to find, categorise and present impact evidence.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has provided data and analysis support and global IT

consultancy ThoughtWorks has carried out platform development. For further

information and to become part of the community, please visit:

www.mobiledevelopmentintelligence.com.

The GSMA also provides a subscription based service covering global mobile

market metrics and analysis through Wireless Intelligence. For more

information go to www.wirelessintelligence.com.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning

more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile

operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile

ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment

providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations.

The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World

Congress and Mobile Asia Expo.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at

www.gsma.com or Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile

communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com.