GSMA Joins Alliance Aiming to Lower the Cost of Mobile Broadband In Developing Countries:

The telecoms trade group, the GSMA is joining the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), a diverse coalition of over 50 members aiming to driving down the cost of Internet access in developing countries via regulatory and policy reform.

Launched in October 2013, A4AI's primary focus is to support the achievement of the UN Broadband Commission's Broadband Target of entry-level broadband services priced at less than 5 percent of average monthly income.

The Alliance believes that, while technological solutions are advancing rapidly, policy and regulations remain a significant barrier to affordable Internet. A4AI thus seeks to create the conditions for open, competitive and innovative broadband markets via policy and regulatory reform through a combination of advocacy, research and knowledge-sharing at global, regional and national levels.

GSMA Announces Passing of Former CEO Rob Conway:

Rob Conway, the long serving former head of the GSM Association has passed away the organisation announced.

In a statement, they confirmed that he died on Thursday after losing a battle with an aggressive form of cancer.

The GSMA will be honouring Rob for his contributions to the development of the mobile industry at Mobile World Congress in February.

Conway served as the head of the GSMA for twelve years, and later stepped down to head the international affairs at Russia's Vimpelcom in September 2011. He only recently resigned from that post.

Specifications for Embedded SIM Cards in Sealed M2M Boxes Agreed:

The GSMA has published its specification to enable the remote 'over the air' provisioning and management of Embedded SIMs in machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. First deployments of the GSMA-compliant Embedded SIM solution are expected to roll out in 2014.

The use of traditional SIMs - which require insertion and replacement - in M2M devices for transportation, utility metering or other applications can present challenges, as M2M devices are often remotely located and hermetically sealed. A specific non-removable SIM is embedded into the M2M device at the point of manufacture and can later be remotely provisioned with the subscription profile of the operator providing the connectivity, which can be subsequently changed or modified over the air. This eliminates the need to intervene to replace SIM cards over the lifetime of each M2M product, reducing ongoing operational and logistical costs.

The Embedded SIM specification allows mobile network operators to provide scalable, reliable and secure connectivity for M2M connected devices. Further, the industry-standard Embedded SIM eliminates the need for each operator to develop their own technical solution for the remote provisioning of their SIMs and also facilitates operator switching if required at the end of a contract.

"The number of mobile connected devices is expected to reach 11 billion by 2020, growth that will be led predominantly by advances in the M2M market," said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. "This level of growth will be heavily dependent on the adoption of a common, global and interoperable SIM provisioning and management architecture that enables the M2M market to flourish. The specification released today will have a significant impact on the M2M marketplace, as it will help provide lower operational costs and drive economies of scale."

MOBILE MONEY: Boom yet to come in Africa:

Although Africa has taken giant strides in the mobile money ecosystem, only a small fraction of Africans are currently partaking in the mobile payment system. Olubayo Abiodun, Clifford Agugoesi and Chimezie Ndubisi look at the challenges and opportunities for the continent in the mobile financial services.

AFRICA is bustling with renewed vigour in this digital economy age. Several pundits have predicted that the continent would leverage the new opportunities that digital present. This optimism has been founded on the achievements in the digital mobile phone sector in many African countries.

Indeed, at various forums such as at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Mobile World, GSMA, AITEC, Africa Telecommunications Union, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Africa has been acclaimed as the fastest growing digital mobile market in the world and biggest after Asia.

In the mobile money ecosystem, the three platforms evolving across the continent are mobile payments, mobile banking and retail money transfer. And as these platforms continue to evolve, new partnerships and offerings are needed to capitalise on the growing number of transactions. For instance, the Bank of Uganda revealed that more than one billion Shillings ($383,880) is transacted through mobile money each day.

Similarly, the CEO of VeriFone Mobile Money, Chris Jones, said that “with the value of electronic funds transfers in Nigeria alone expected to climb to N160 billion ($1.01 billion) per day by the end of the year, the opportunity for mobile network operators, banks, merchants and financial institutions is enormous”.

Africa’s leading role in the global mobile money market is reflected in the fact that it accounts for 15 of the top 20 countries by mobile money usage. And with an estimated 80 per cent of adults still unbanked, the potential for growth is enormous in Africa. This has become even more so with the new developments in commercial payments and the huge youth market that predominantly tied to mobile phones.

And as a result of the shift to the digital economy, the trend in the financial services ecosystem in Africa now includes mobile money, mobile banking, cashless economy, cashlite transactions, internet banking, and Point of Sale (PoS) terminals. These have also led to new transaction strategies within the ecosystem. These strategies include Person-to-Person (P2P) electronic transfers, Business-to-Business (B2B), Government-to-Government (G2G), Business-to-Government (B2G), Person-to-Government (P2G) and vice versa amongst others.