Mobile Data Market-Place

Enabling internet-based solutions through digital connectivity. The 21st Century is bursting with internet-based solutions, however, a premise to those is the existence of inclusive digital connectivity that allows for internet and information access, which may be the case in developed countries, but it’s not the reality of ‘underdeveloped’ and ‘in development’ nations – e.g. Brazil, Zimbabwe.

Digital inclusion though a blockchain-based business model for mobile carriers. A business model which incorporates a mobile data market-place through the tokenization of data (via blockchain), allowing customers of a mobile carrier to buy and sell data among themselves.

Universal Access to the Internet Through Mobile Hiperconnectivity. In order to make internet-based solutions effective for everyone, there must be universal access to the internet. A data market-place would further technological democratization by lowering the cost of data and creating a mixed model of prepaid and postpaid SIM card, therefore promoting digital inclusion.

There’s a premise to nearly all internet-based solutions brought forth in the 21st century, which is an inclusive digital connectivity, in other words, internet-based solutions do not improve the lives of those who lack internet access and, although great, may further the social and economic differences between such people and those who currently enjoy internet access.

According to the International Telecommunications Union (United Nations), 48% of the world population had access to the internet in 2018, however, only 41% of the developing world benefited from it – in contrast to the developed world, in which 81% of the population were digitally included. In Brazil, for instance, only 64.7% out of the 210 million people enjoyed internet access in 2016 (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), even though the number of cellphones far surpasses the population – 1.5 per person.

This occurs due to several reasons ranging from poor telecommunications infrastructure to the reflexes of poverty on people’s purchasing power, nonetheless, a chief contributor to the problem is the high cost of mobile data, which can be lowered through the creation of mobile data market-place, by allowing customers to purchase it from one another at a competitive price range.

Although this idea is still in a concept stage – due to an insurmountable barrier which is the requirement of a partnership with a mobile phone carrier company in order to prototype it, since those hold a monopoly of data exchange, at least in Brazil – it is possible to describe a population whose lives would be impacted by it.

Primarily, the impacted people would be anyone who holds a SIM card and depends on it for internet access and daily communication. However, and most importantly, those who currently hold a prepaid SIM card will be able to transition into a mixed model of prepaid and postpaid, no longer living with the uncertainty of when access to the internet may cease, since they will be able to instantly buy more data at a lower price or sell it if they buy more than the affordable.

Finally, a mobile data market-place would further the number of people who can access the internet – and for a longer period of time – therefore contributing to the democratization of the internet empowering communities to both take part in solutions, and to overcome barriers to civic participation, through the access to information and digital literacy.

In simples terms, it is a data plan market-place enabled through the tokenization ­(via blockchain technology) of mobile phones data in a manner which the clients from a certain mobile phone carrier can buy and sell data amongst themselves. Blockchain technology could enable such transactions in an automated and transparent manner whilst the mobile carrier could make use of smart contracts to preserve the profit in their business model while providing a less expensive model for mobile data plans.

Furthermore, the concept could be furthered through the application of artificial intelligence to automatically make the transaction based on the markets data (e.g. probable cheapest price; likelihood of offer and demand patterns) and the customers interest (e.g. cost; data quantity; cost per data quantity).