Mobile telephony and digital poverty in Latin America. Can mobile phones expansion reduce poverty?
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Abstract
The strong pattern of inequality that marks LatinAmerica and the Caribbean (LAC), the most unequal continent in the world, is repeated, although with different characteristics, in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Despite significant progress in universal implementation of some of these technologies, especially cellular telephones, LAC has not reached the levels of economic growth and reduction of poverty and inequality expected with the penetration of ICTs. Although extensive literature exists signaling the potential benefits of ICTs as tools for poverty reduction, the evidence is still incipient in Latin America.
This document is the final report of a study that had a dual purpose: to contribute to an understanding of the relationship among poverty, digital poverty and mobile telephony’s potential contribution to improve the standard of living for the poor, and to move toward better statistical analysis of the cellular telephony in the poorest sectors of LAC. For a more in-depth assessment, a detailed analysis was done of the evolution of these variables in Uruguay, where fairly reliable statistics are available. Although it is not currently possible to demonstrate empirically, in great detail, that mobile telephony penetration is making a substantive contribution to poverty reduction in LAC, the study sheds light on certain areas.
First, mobile telephony penetration has been significantly higher than the others ICTs among the poorest sectors of the population. Second, Lorenz curves show that the distribution of mobile telephony is consistently more equitable than landlines among the population in LAC. Third, where poverty levels are equal, in just a few years mobile telephony penetration has reached levels far higher than those attained by fixed telephony over several decades. As a result, having a mobile telephone is a less reliable proxy indicator to estimate a household’s socio-economic status than having a landline. Fourth, the high degree of mobile telephone penetration in poor sectors sparks new ideas about possible strategies and tools for promoting other ICTs (especially computer use and Internet access), which have had comparatively less impact so far.
In short, these elements contribute to an objective andmethodologically valid argument that can be used in the design or redesign of public ICT-related development policies in the region.
MOBILE TELEPHONY, DIGITAL POVERTY, LATIN AMERICA
