Phones for the poor, by Syed Mohammad Ali

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Kenya is estimated to have three million cell phone users among its 30 million people while only 200,000 households have electricity. Indians are buying two million cell phones a month, despite the fact that 300 million of them live in poverty. Phone makers are lobbying for tax breaks arguing that the product is no longer a luxury item. With the increasing saturation of markets in developed countries and the simultaneous expansion of consumerism around the world, many business concerns are keen to identify investment opportunities in marketplaces once considered too risky and remote. While the growing presence of trans-national corporations in developing countries has its fair share of opponents, attracting business to emerging markets can be seen as a positive trend.
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Source: Daily Times