Mobile Opportunities. Poverty and Telephony Access in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Case of Peru
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Abstract
Original Title: Oportunidades Móviles: Pobreza y Acceso a la Telefonía en América Latina y el Caribe. El caso de Perú
The capabilities that access to telecommunications can enable as an effective tool for poverty alleviation are the focus of debates. Telecommunications involve a group of multi-functional services that, in turn, entail using diverse technologies at different costs. Among the most extended services are fixed line telephony, mobile telephony, public telephony and the Internet.
While regulations have focused on fixed line telephony -with most expectations regarding Internet use- mobile telephony has experienced a dramatic and sustained growth. In Peru, according to December 2006 data, the number of mobile lines is four times the number of fixed ones. In this context of growht, DIRSI engaged in research on the opportunities offered by mobile telephony among low-income sectors in urban areas, or the "base of pyramid". Emphasis is put upon users, defied as those who have made or received at least one call from a mobile terminal in the past three weeks.
Three cities were selected in Peru: Metropolitan Lima -as it is the capital citiy and concentrates a third of the country's population-, a coastal city: Trujillo, and an Andean one, in the Puno-Juliaca axis. A total of 1,249 valid questionnaires was collected, uniformely distributed among the population of the cities and D and E strata (following the Sistema de Focalización de Hogares of the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas).
This is the first report of a research about mobile telephony use amog users belonging to the "base of the pyramid" in urban areas. For this reason, an emphasis is put un users at large (not only mobile users), covering sensitivity to prices and income, usage patterns, identified possible advantages and patterns of sustitution of other services, such as fixed line and public telephony.
