MTN, Google team up in Africa

Johannesburg, 01 Jul 2009

MTN Uganda has partnered with Google and the Grameen Foundation to provide mobile information services to rural areas in the African country.

The service is made up of five mobile applications that will provide basic information on specific topics, ranging from business, agriculture and health, to weather conditions.

According to an MTN statement, the applications were developed by Grameen Foundation's Application Laboratory and are run over MTN's network on the Google SMS search platform.

“The introduction of the service is a culmination of an 18-month-long field-based programme in Uganda and an innovative partnership that strategically combines the resources of MTN, Grameen Foundation and Google,” says MTN.

The services are SMS-based and designed to work with basic mobile phones, meaning users are not required to have mobile Internet access. However, MTN says the applications can be used as if the customer were connected to the Internet.

Application information

“Farmer's Friend” is a searchable database with agricultural advice and targeted weather forecasts. “Health Tips” provides information on sexual and reproductive health, paired with a “Clinic Directory”, which can locate nearby clinics. “Google Trader” matches buyers and sellers of agricultural produce and commodities, as well as other products.

The Ugandan department of meteorology provides daily updates for the weather application. The Busoga Rural Open Source Development Initiative provides agricultural information.

“For the health application, AppLab works with Marie Stopes Uganda, the local affiliate of a leading service provider for sexual and reproductive health, and Straight Talk Foundation, a Ugandan NGO which specialises in health communication.”

According to MTN, the Grameen Foundation will continue to develop applications tailored for poor communities. “It will work on a project basis with technology partners such as Google, as well as NGOs and government entities, to develop new applications for the poor in Uganda and beyond.”

This is not MTN's first mobile service for rural areas in Uganda. In early March, the company launched its Mobile Money service, aimed at users who typically do not have access to bank branches. The project saw 180 000 transactions on the service in the first three months of operation.

While there are indications these applications could be used in other African countries, it is unclear whether they will be brought to SA.