Farmers view Dhanaji Dongre's crops in Khandali, India, and ask why they are looking so much better. Dongre says it's because he is using agricultural information transmitted to his cellular phone, and he shares that information with others. This is how mobile data empowers people in rural India.
Dongre farms some eight acres with such crops as corn, tomatoes, eggplant, and wheat. He lives in a modest home with simple furnishings, and he typically uses animals for farming rather than tractors or other motorized equipment.
Dongre’s handset is a Nokia "feature phone" employing GSM's slow GPRS and SMS data. In fact, 3G became available to consumers in India earlier this year, but still isn't widespread.
Still, Dongre's phone pulls in a tremendous amount of data for farming, using Nokia's new Life Tools agricultural software, which transmits updates a few times a day.
The most valuable feature for Dongre is current local market prices for his crops. In this area, farmers are held hostage, in a financial sense, to middlemen who purchase crops for resale to distributors. Without knowing market prices, farmers sometimes receive less than they should. Using cellular phones, farmers like Dongre select pricing information for two or three crops. They can point to prices displayed on the screen to demand the true market value, which could decrease the middlemen's profits.
Life Tools' agricultural module also transmits information about pesticides and plant diseases, fertilizers, planting schedules, weather forecasts, and other relevant data (e.g., power outages, strikes by workers). Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has established an "agriculture desk" staffed by experts who determine and review data that's transmitted over Life Tools.
As a result of access to such information, Dongre's income has improved significantly, so the cost of Life Tools is more than paid for by additional profits.
Another Indian in the vicinity, Hanumant Markat, works about four acres. He also has Life Tools, but the service's educational module is mainly used by his children to learn English.
Markat's son, Umesh, who is in the ninth grade, learns how to read and write English in school. But he uses the Life Tools educational module to learn how to speak English phrases and sentences, which he demonstrated to us. The module translates Maranthi into English. Other educational modules in Life Tools offer general knowledge, exam preparation, and exam results.
Umesh sees learning English as a ticket to a better life, a common theme in the Indian countryside.
Life Tools' monthly subscription averages 30 rupees (US$0.61) to 60 rupees ($1.22) per month, although subscribing to the four educational modules and the agricultural modules combining both market prices and agricultural updates would add a dollar or two. That's cheap by Western standards, but not for the many Indians who make less than $1,000 a year.
Despite the relatively low cost of the service, Nokia sees the possibility of significant revenues. India has more than 1.1 billion people, cellphone service is booming, and at least 60 percent of the population works in agriculture. Nokia has captured almost 60 percent of the Indian handset market, with the majority being lower-cost feature phones.
Life Tools can work with the company's high-end handsets, but the software is specifically designed for basic phones, SMS, and slow cellular networks. As a result, the updates are brief, and there aren't detailed graphics to illustrate information (e.g., photos of crop diseases and insects).
Ultimately, the lessons Nokia's learning in India can translate into more software and services for other emerging nations. Coincidentally, by providing content for some of the most critical vocations, such as agriculture and education, Nokia might in some ways help influence their development.
[Disclosure: Alan Reiter is a participant in Nokia's "blogger relations program" and was invited to India to learn about Nokia's new cellphone software and services. Nokia paid Alan's expenses, including transportation, hotels, and meals. He was not paid any fee.]
Sorry for not replying sooner. I guessed I missed this.
Cellular operators for many years have been allowing subscribers to pay for different items. This is especially true in Japan where phones, including those with NFC (near field communications) are able to act as mobile walets, which I discussed in a previous ThinkerNET post.
But Japan certainly isn't the country that lets subscribers pay for items that are added to cellular bills.
Also, there are a variety of third party ventures, such as Obopay and M-Pesa, which offer banking-type services. Nokia is working with Obopay to launch Nokia Money next year.
Thanks for the follow up. Could a service provider become some sort of bank? that you could pay through your phone and get the bill on your next month cellphone bill?
Also, can't this be done with bluetooth? there's no need for a new communications standar, they just need to build the app for it - no?
Thanks very much for the link. Interesting article. It highlights, among other things, the fact that people who have access to the Web are becoming "information resources" in villages.
That's why one of my future ThinkerNET blogs will be about mobile payment services, such as Nokia Money, M-Pesa, etc.
It's also why I thought about the possibilities of integrating Nokia Money into Nokia services, such as Life Tools and Tej for textile order entry/tracking).
Subscribers to cellular phone service and cellular applications already "trust" (to a certain extent) the cellular operator for billing and adding non-cellular payments to their bill. In India, for example, Nokia is the premier brand and very much trusted by Indians (I asked Indian residents, not just Nokia employees!).
A few months ago Nokia unveiled a plan for Indians to pay for phones with very small monthly payments over a year or so. In addition, some people in emerging nations make money by offering their phones to people who don't have them, and charging a small fee.
I assume that many people would trust Nokia as their "banker."
By the way, I spend more on communications services than I spend on food, too. (Not including if I blow the budget at an expensive restaurant!)
There is one reason that payment infrastructure might well be well handled by the communications infrastructure.
The payment to, and the willingness to accept payment from, a individual or organization could be secured against that person's or organization's or ability to communicate. A communications bill will useusly be paid, and most people run up a pretty significant one.
First world, I spend more on broadband, cellular, cable and POTS than I spend on food and almost as much as I spend on entertainment.
As I understand, one of the big 'micro capital' investment is the village cell, phone- maybe one of the biggest cash outlay for people there too.
For example, you need a handset that includes it, and the software. You need the banks to accept it. You need merchants, bus lines, subway lines, vending machines, etc. to be outfitted with NFC readers. You need to establish privacy and security policies.
For India, I wouldn't be surprised if, eventually, Nokia Life Tools included some type of payment system, perhaps like Nokia Money (which I'm currently researching). But for emerging nations, I doubt NFC is the best solution, at least currently.
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