Message Phone System

Report

A technical paper by R.J. Honicky, Omar Bakr, Michael Demmer and Eric Brewer of UC Berkeley proposing a ‘voice message mostly’ mobile phone architecture to extend connectivity to the ‘next billion’ users, particularly in Africa, who remained unconnected due to limited rural cellular coverage and unaffordable fees. Using analyses of mobile phone usage and rural power data, the paper argues that an asynchronous, message-oriented system could improve network utilisation, effective coverage and perceived service quality while significantly cutting costs, making remote rural villages and the urban poor viable telecommunications markets.