This is one of Sparks’ fields of expertise.

    50% of Kenyans pay for goods and services, such as soda and taxi rides, by texting money (and entering their PINs) on their mobile phones. 

    Overseas Filipino Workers in Dubai remit salaries and savings to family members’ mobile phones back home in an instant.  Ugandan parents pay school tuition with their phones and get critical veterinary advice for their farms via text.  In Côte d'Ivoire, fisherman check market prices by text before selling their catch.  Voice SMS enables the illiterate to leave a voice message for the price of a text. 

    Hundreds of thousands of Africans and Asians are flourishing entrepreneurs as Village Phone ladies, Simu ya Jamii tricycle drivers, and kiosk operators, renting out cell time and selling phone cards/vouchers to villagers and urbanites.  Ninety percent of people in developing nations have access to a mobile phone.

    U.S. citizens consider prepaid services, as anger increases at poor service and biting 2-year contracts.  Instead of listening, mobile operators add another phone menu…”press 375 if you want to talk to a live person.”

    MNOs around the world clamor for new products and services to cross-sell as ARPUs plummet.  They struggle with how to sell data services. This is Sparks’ world.

    Mobile is revolutionizing the world.

    Sparks has done extensive research and mobile product/service development and marketing strategy for the Americas, MENA, Africa, and Asia on these providers:  América Móvil (including TracFone, Vonage, Straight Talk, Safelink), Bharti Airtel,  Globe, MTN, Maroc Telecom, Méditel, Orange, Smart, Vodafone, Zain.

    The M-Pesa (Kenya Safaricom/Vodafone) service that Sparks worked on launched in 2011 here.

Other work is still in development and confidential at this time. 

Mobile innovation

 

 

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