Communities Should Continue to Benefit From Mobile Revolution

Mobile-phone operators are between a rock and a hard place, juggling protections for customers who seek free communications while satisfying demands from controlling governments, explains Sifiso Dabengwa, CEO of MTN, a multinational telecommunications firm based in South Africa. “On the one hand mobile connectivity is touted as the lifeblood of socio-economic development in the underdeveloped world,” Dabengwa writes in the opinion essay for the Observer in Uganda. “On the other hand, depending on your geographic location, operators are increasingly labelled pawns and accomplices of repressive regimes wanting to stifle freedom of expression and monitor the movement of their people.” Mobile connections can provide life-changing insights and economic opportunity for rural poor around the globe. Yet Dabengwa points out that governments set the ground rules for mobile-phone operators and telecommunication regulators, and those include handing over data as requested by governments. He concludes, “Understandably, satisfying the often diametrically-opposed demands and requirements of a range of stakeholders is a daily challenge.” - YaleGlobal

Communities Should Continue to Benefit From Mobile Revolution

Mobile phones have transformed lives for citizens in poor, repressive countries, contributing to jobs and education; human rights is a concern for mobile phone companies
Sifiso Dabengwa
Monday, September 2, 2013

Sifiso Dabengwa is group president and CEO of MTN.

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