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A Technology for Good roundup for Mobile World Congress 2015

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As always, Mobile World Congress is a whirlwind. But Ericsson had a record number of visitors this year, over 5,000 and I do believe that we are making an impact as change-makers in the Networked Society. I have to admit, sometimes I prefer to be “on the ground,” working IRL with the implementation of our projects, like my recent visit to South Sudan, but MWC always provides unprecedented networking opportunities, and it is THE place in the mobile space to get updated on the latest, greatest, and greenest, happenings in the industry.

Yesterday, I wrote about fuel cells and rethinking energy performance, particularly with 5G. But our activities here in Barcelona extended in many different directions. Here’s a quick roundup:

Our EKOCENTER project with Coca Cola, Tigo Rwanda and Solarkiosk launched here, and we had many visits to our demo, including government officials, customers and employees. The ultimate goal of the project is to empower women entrepreneurs in emerging markets to improve their lives by having access to clean water, goods and commerce, but also to connectivity that can benefit them and the broader community. Each EKOCENTER will include three Ericsson solutions – Managed Rural Coverage, TV Anywhere, and M-commerce.

Connected Women was a broader theme at MWC, looking at many innovative ways ICT can bridge the gender gap as well as focus on women in the ICT industry, and we had our Group head of HR, Bina Chaurasia, as a featured speaker on one of the panels.

Grundfos and Ericsson are piloting a global solution that addresses some of the main challenges of providing clean water in the developing world. The solution addresses two key problems – the lack of reliable and sustainable water supplies and the difficulty of both paying and collecting revenues in unbanked areas. Ericsson and Grundfos have developed a global solution to enable people to pay without carrying cash, while also ensuring efficient revenue collection for the water utilities that operate the solution.

Wednesday wrapped up with the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) panel, and the launch of their annual Affordability Report, which stated that at least two billion people living in poverty in 51 countries across the developing world cannot access the Internet affordably. The report says bringing affordable broadband to all must be a priority in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals currently under negotiation at the UN. My colleague Barbara Baffer is on the board of A4AI, and we were pleased to be able to host the event in the Ericsson hall.

Our work around the Syrian refugee crisis and family reconnection together with Refugees United, Zain, Asiacell and Avea made the Global Mobile Award shortlist for Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations but alas it did not win.

On Tuesday the focus was very much humanitarian response. The GSMA Mobile for Development team hosted the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) Business Consultation for the mobile industry together with UN OCHA. The session highlighted the growing role of business in humanitarian crises and the need for more innovation and citizen engagement. Themes like big data were very topical but there was also a lot of discussion about the need to find practical, scalable solutions to humanitarian response. On April 21 Ericsson will be hosting European/Nordic Business Consultation together with UN OCHA in Stockholm.

You can get more info on Ericsson’s complete Mobile World Congress engagement here: http://www.ericsson.com/mwc2015/

The post A Technology for Good roundup for Mobile World Congress 2015 appeared first on Technology For Good Blog.


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