Wirelessnorth.ca

“if someone doesn’t have a mobile phone they will lack basic functions of waht it is to be human. in the end, everyone will have at least one cell phone, in china and in everywhere” -at davos

Big variation in pricing and penetration of mobile around the world. US arpu is around 40USD, in India $4 USD, China mobile $11USD. But chinese first and third largest opperators. 300 and 100 milion subs respectively (thats a lot). China is signing up 5-6 MILLION new subs a month (think about what this means for the future of the internet in general.
1 million postpaid
5 million prepaid
estimates 80-100 mil accessing internet on mobile
33 billion sms a month

chinese were intested in developing on 3g. tired of paying royalties to gsma. govn wants to impose standards, telcos and manufacturers don’t want chinese-only standards because they want to sell overseas too
so govn has refused to sell 3G spectrum because of techno nationalism. may not have 3g before olympics
in china and korea the state is never far from technology
innovative phones in china: feng shui sensing phone, cigarette holder phone combo, and iphone clones
innovative usage: crowd shopping, when strangers congregate around a vendor and product to negotiate a discount.
govn has urged mobile citizens to send rousing red messages to familly outside china (propaganda)
800 milion txt voting messages sent during the 3rd season of super girl (think reality TV show)
which panicked and embarased the government.. because voting is not so common in china.
digital divide Issues:
rather than build branch banking infrastructure, mobile banking is much more economical. Mobile will bring banking, lending and other services to rural areas for the first time.
social networking (facebook) have failed to develop followings mobile instant message rules, dislike email because you don’t know when the reply will come
Bangledesh: Grameen phone largest cellular network 98% coverage and 15m subscribers in sept
One woman per village takes out loan from grameen phone as an entrepreneur and offers phone to village. owner opperated pay phone. And good business for farmers by making market information accessible to all, substantially empowering women from rural housholds

The future of mobile is in the countryside in china/bangledesh.