Special report by The Africa Bazaar magazine

Build and develop it and they will use it, so the saying goes.

The use of Short Message Service (SMS) is heating up the competitive mobile-phone market in Africa, creating opportunities not just for investors but also for software programmers who are coming up with programs that make the device accessible to consumers from farmers to executives in most of the continent’s regions.

“Let’s just say text-messaging devices are not luxury devices anymore,” says Thomas Jonas, managing director of Namtech ICT Solutions, a IT support and service company in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

With the low cost of the mobile phone—especially due to recycling programs that refurbish phones discarded in developed nations and resell them at a lower cost across the developing world—software developers find that the best way to reach a population of people who do not own a PC is to transform even the most basic mobile into an Internet-capable device. One such company is ForgetMeNot Africa (FMN Africa), which is finding a way to get the benefits of e-mail to the many who cannot afford a computer in Africa. 

Bridging the Digital Divide

Access to the Internet anywhere, anytime has become essential in today’s fast-paced business climate. However, it is no longer a tool only for the business elite. The Message Optimiser turns the simple tool of SMS into a service linking those without computers to those who can’t live without them.

FMN Africa is a London-based “software as a service” (SaaS) company whose handset technology allows carriers to immediately provide cost-effective, comprehensive messaging services—e-mail, instant messaging and SMS—to both prepay and postpay subscribers alike. “It’s all about bridging the digital divide and making the Internet available to those who don’t have it,” says Jeremy George, chief operating officer of FMN Africa.

“Texting is more reliable than sending an e-mail due to the speedy delivery of messages and delivery confirmations,” says Jonas. “Many subscribers use SMS to escape the needs of pricier voice plans, as it provides both clients and associates an effective and speedy means of communication, bypassing limitations in an emergent ICT infrastructure, which includes minimal penetration of landlines in many areas.”

With global e-mail and IM being received as SMS, the MO gives a subscriber access to a normally expensive service—and on a phone that may only cost about $5. No application downloads or device upgrades to the phone are needed, as the network operator implements this software in a matter of weeks.

It is all done on FMN Africa’s server using the industry-standard cloud computing. When a subscriber enrolls, they receive an e-mail address linked to their mobile phone number. They can then e-mail a friend in London or a cousin in Zimbabwe by sending a simple text message. The SMS is sent to a number designated by the network operator to the recipient’s e-mail address. The text message is then captured by FMN Africa’s server via a link to the network operator’s messaging center. This is then converted and routed by Internet to the specified recipient.

That person receives an e-mail with the mobile subscriber’s e-mail address on the message. When that person replies by e-mail, the message is routed and converted back to SMS, and then delivered to the mobile subscriber as a text message. “No waiting to get to a computer to check e-mail—phones receive messages anytime, any day,” says George. “Neither does the user have to wait for the network operator to assign a number to a new e-mail address, as you can immediately apply for a job from your phone.” This means the user can apply for a job seen in the newspaper by email without having to wait for the network operator to send them the designated phone number. As the user, it means I have the freedom to immediately use my phone for email. No waiting for receipt of the designated number for that email address.

Easing implementation of this technology is a revenue-sharing model that requires no upfront capital on the part of the carrier. “Once a license agreement is signed, installing and using the software takes only a couple weeks,” George says.  Making Internet communication accessible means “those who are separated can now be in touch,” George says.

From e-Mail to mHealth

FMN Africa is also keen to flex its muscles in the mHealth arena as well, with tentative discussions on the use of MO in health organizations in countries such as Mozambique. Also known as telemedicine, mHealth is the provision of health-related services via mobile communications. Mhealth plays an increasingly valuable role in the developing world, as the prevalence of mobile phones allows for the advancement of healthcare initiatives in some of the most remote and impoverished regions. George gives one example: using Microsoft Outlook, a medical professional can add the virtual e-mails of, say, 200 health workers in the field—or patients, for that matter—delivering messages by text and receiving responses to his or her desktop computer as e-mail: already digital, and ready to be sorted, searched and organized. This means that an organization can now have direct contact with hundreds of their patients and field workers, using familiar applications right from their desktop computer, thereby collecting valuable data much faster, as data is collected by eText.

FMN Africa is just one indication that unique solutions to the developing ICT landscape in Africa are on the rise. Another such solution is Datadyne’s EpiSurveyor, another software program capitalizing on the simplicity of text messaging. Supported by the U.N. Foundation and Vodafone, the EpiSurveyor provides public-health organizations with a free, open-source mobile SMS tool that facilitates the fast and easy collection and transmittance of data on diseases such as malaria, TB, HIV and measles. Digital data from the start means prompt analysis.

Text messaging does, however, have inherent limitations. “Phones have a limited number of characters, and mobile-subscriber networks tend to get overloaded at the end of the month, when operators run specials and promotions,” says Namtech’s Jonas.

Nevertheless, the growth of SMS in Africa means healthy revenue for network operators looking to offset the recent decline in the average revenue per user. 

Credits to Africa Bazaar Magazine www.imekmedia.com