Champagne and talk of “killer aps” usually dominate the annual 3GSM World Congress, the mobile phone industry’s premier event. But this year’s show in Barcelona highlighted that some of the world’s biggest companies are cultivating their ethical credentials, with a number of telecoms operators and banks making rather interesting bedfellows as they collaborate on projects that will benefit some of the world’s poorest people.
The rapidly growing global remittance market, which, according to the World Bank, was worth $268bn in 2006, and which the UN says involves about 191 million migrants, is suddenly experiencing a surge in global interest. On the first day of this year’s show, the GSM Association (GSMA) and MasterCard unveiled details of a pilot money transfer scheme that allow migrant workers to use mobile phones for international remittances.
