English on the Move: Learning English via Mobile Phones in Africa

Paul Woods, English Manager Sub-Saharan Africa, British Council

Why Use Mobile Phones?• The rationale for using mobile phones as a

distribution medium is due to the wide spread adoption of GSM services amongst the general population

• In many Sub-Saharan African countries, there are more users of mobiles than landlines

• In China there are 60 million more users of mobiles than landlines

Feasibility study• We commissioned a South African researcher with

an extensive knowledge of the mobile phone market in the Southern Africa region to carry out a feasibility study

• At the time, our region consisted of seven countries in Southern Africa, so the research did not include East, West or Central African countries which now form part of the British Council’s SSA region.

GSM Network Operators in Southern Africa

Country Operator CDMA GSM Pre Paid Post paid

Total

Angola Movicell 800MhZ 1,666,200 87,700 1,753,900

Angola Unitel GSM 900 3,575,000 14,000 3,589,000

Angola Unitel WCDMA 4000 4000 8,000

Botswana Mascom Wireless

GSM 900 862,400 17600 880,000

Botswana Orange Botswana

GSM 900/1800

578,100 17900 596,000

Lesotho Econet Ezi-cell GSM 900 88,400 3,299 91,600

Lesotho Vodacom Lesotho

GSM 900 386,700 4,300 391,000

Country Operator CDMA

GSM Pre Paid Post paid

Total

Mozambique Mcel GSM 900 2,436,000 75,300 2,511,300

Mozambique Vodacom Mozambique

GSM 900/1800

1,278,800 23,700 1,302,500

Namibia MTC WCDMA 30,000 20,000 50,000

Namibia MTC GSM 900 742,580 45,420 788,000

Namibia Cell One WCDMA 2,450 1,220 3,670

Namibia Cell One GSM 900 41,300 6,400 47,700

Country Operator GSM Pre Paid Post paid Total

South Africa Cell C GSM 900/18 3,600,000 1,180,000 4,780,000

South Africa MTN GSM 900/18 12,058,000 2,049,000 14,107,000

South Africa MTN WCDMA 531,000 531,000 1,062,000

South Africa Vodacom GSM 900/18 18,753,100 2,861,600 21,614,700

South Africa Vodacom WCDMA 551,700 640,000 1,191,700

Zambia CelTel GSM 900 1,966,000 1,958,140 7,960

Zambia MTN Zambia GSM 900 348,480 3,520 352,000

Zambia Cell Z GSM 900 71,100 71,100

Zimbabwe EcoNet GSM 900 732,500 7,400 739,900

Zimbabwe Net One GSM 900 220,930 155,830 376,760

Zimbabwe Net Two GSM 900 241,500 750 242,250

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants• The younger generation are digital natives – they are IT literate

and have grown up with technology as part of their everyday lives

• They are so familiar with operating systems and types of functionality they don’t need to learn how to use them – when something new comes along they take to it naturally

• The older generation are digital immigrants – they need help and an instruction manual for new technology

• The average young person in the world owns $800 worth of technology

• The average graduate in the world has spent 5000 hours reading paper-based books

Reaching learners in Africa• There are around 200 million learners of English in Africa• If learning content is to be relevant to the lifestyles of the

younger

generation it needs to be delivered via technology• Research in the UK by BECTA shows that using technology

improves

achievement in almost all national curriculum subjects

British Council Global English Products• There are currently six British Council Global English products

for teachers and six products for learners• LearnEnglish Mobile is one of the products for Learners

The LearnEnglish Mobile ProductThe Council experimented with content for 3 types of mobile device:• Hi-tech (rich media content)• Medium tech (WAP content)• Lo-tech (SMS “push” and SMS “pull” content)In Africa at present, only low-tech devicesare widely available, so this limits the kind ofcontent which can be delivered.

SMS Push – “Everyday English”• This product was originally launched in Thailand in February 2008.

Users subscribed to the service via their mobile network, and chose one of three levels – Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. These were very broad levels that approximate to A, B & C bands in the Common European Framework (CEF).

• Users in Thailand subscribed for a 15-day free trial, then they were charged at 29 baht per month (approx. 50p). Continuation of service was done automatically. Subscribers received a message each month giving instructions on how to unsubscribe.

• Subscribers received an SMS message every day (at 10 am). These messages were limited to 160 characters and are divided into six categories – word/phrase, expression/idiom, collocations, types of English, learning tips and interesting facts.

• Approximately 500 items were written for each level, so the content could last indefinitely (there would be no harm in repeating messages after a year or more).

Examples of SMS “push” content• Word phrases a factory (n) A building where large amounts of goods are made using

machines. Eg I work in a factory which makes cars.• Expressions/idioms to take place (v phrase) To happen. Eg The last football World Cup took place

in Germany.• Collocations a business trip (coll) To travel to a different place, Eg in another town or

country, for work. Eg I go on two business trips a month.• Types of English sweets (n - UK) candies (n - US)A small piece of sweet food, made of sugar.

Eg She bought a packet of sweets to suck on the journey.• Learning Tips Spelling – third person ending in ‘s’: When a verb ends in ‘y’, don’t forget to

change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’. E.g. study - studies.• Interesting facts Did you know French was the official language of England for over 600 years?

Issues – SMS vs IVR• The Feasibility Study recommended that, when considering

technology acceptance and adoption in combination with the income levels, education levels and literacy levels of the potential audience, the only technology that would support widespread adoption is voice (IVR) with a limited amount of sms as an option

• High end technologies such as WAP and Java were not recommended and would hinder rather than encourage adoption.

• An IVR platform would be required by network providers that deployed the English language course - most operators had this in place already for customer support and other subscriber services.

• However, the product as developed by British Council for global use was SMS, rather than IVR-based.

Issues - Billing models• The target market segment we are aiming at is almost entirely

pre-paid (rather than post-paid) with incomes below R2000 per month.

• The feasibility study recommended a billing model for the bottom of the pyramid segment, ie people who would spend money only on the bare necessities to survive. In this case pre-paid is the only option.

Market Analysis - SSA• The target market for English language services exists in LSM

(Living Standard Measure) 3-6. English is considered an aspirational language in this segment and is normally only used by educated higher LSM groups.

• They have no or a basic education, limited verbal skills in English.

• They are either self employed and trade in basic commodities or are employed in the unskilled labour market

• An overwhelming majority of subscribers choose pre-paid subscriptions and buy low end handsets with basic functionality.

• Voice is the primary service with a limited amount of SMS. In South Africa only 15% of LSM 3-6 use SMS as a means of communication even though it is less expensive. This is primarily due to lack of know- how about how to send an SMS, and in some cases illiteracy

Benefits to operatorsAnticipated benefits for Mobile Operators include: • Strategic benefits: sustainable competitive advantage- unique

proposition that takes the industry lead in customer centricity and provides the OpCO with an alternative acquisition strategy that will be unexpected and difficult for competitors to copy.

• Corporate Social Responsibility: positioning in the community, thus moving subscribers up the customer bonding continuum

• Marketing benefits: brand exposure, increased brand equity, brand and product entrenchment in the consumer space

• Financial benefits: growth in voice and sms traffic (most markets report between 7% and 14%annual growth in revenue for similar services) and increased market share.

SWOT – Strengths and WeaknessesStrengths• GSM adoption wider than other communication technologies - an ideal

medium to reach underserved target segments• Combination of the device and British Council brand/quality assured

content – the product was seen in pilots as a valuable learning adjunct• Unique service, no other language course is available via mobile phone in

Sub-Saharan Africa• Social upliftment opportunities - will receive support of operators and

governmentsWeaknesses• Logistically complex if a bespoke IVR platform were to be deployed• Lengthy implementation time for possible new platforms and finding skills

in indigenous and English language proficiencies. • SMS maybe overly complex for technology-averse subscribers and not

suitable for illiterate subscribers• Learning value of content is less for the lo-tech product

Opportunities and ThreatsOpportunities• Increase the adoption of English language in Sub Saharan Africa• Wide reach using GSM technology –the product is relevant to the Sub

Saharan African market now• Service take-up is correlated to GSM penetration, still on an upward

growth curve in AfricaThreats• Operators won’t subsidise the service and will pass on full license fee

cost plus mark-up to subscribers, presenting a price barrier to the target segment.

• Service needs to be positioned correctly in relation to consumer needs and key benefits e.g. aspirational and marketed widely for widespread take up.

• Operators may demand payments / facilitation fees to deploy services on their network

What success have we had so far?• I had hoped when I initially offered this presentation to be able

to report that the SMS push Everyday English product had been adopted in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• But it has proved to be much more difficult marketing the product than we had initially anticipated.

• We decided to go with the product as it stood, and put out a tender for an intermediary company to negotiate on our behalf with network providers in each country. Although there was initially a favourable response from one company, (the Social Enterprise Company), in the end none of the companies we approached decided to bid.

Marketing the product• So we decided to approach network providers in each country on a

one-by-one basis. This country by country approach has presented some problems.

• We used a Powerpoint presentation provided from the UK to raise interest at an initial meeting with network marketing managers.

• The approach seemed to be working in Malawi and Mauritius, where there was considerable enthusiasm initially. In Malawi we reached the point of drawing up a draft contract with the network operator, but in both countries we haven’t yet managed to get a signed contract in place.

Why not?Several possible explanations:• Some reservations about whether the basic SMS push content is

sufficiently interesting to attract subscribers. You can’t offer a complete language course in 180 character bite-sized chunks!

• No classroom support applications for the content.• Reluctance of network providers to pay “up-front” for the use of the

content. (in Thailand the business model was to split income three ways, between the network, the content aggregator and the British Council – but based on advice from the Council’s Business Relations Unit we went for a model where we would sell a licence to use the content for a fixed period of a year)

• Lack of dedicated British Council EL staff at country level with sufficient understanding of the product and the technology involved to market it successfully.

What next? Step up efforts to market the product and encourage operators to fund

it as part of the corporate social responsibility agenda. Ensure British Council English staff in each country are adequately

briefed, feel confident about what they are being asked to promote and are aware of the marketing tools the British Council has provided for them on its intranet site.

Explore with the UK whether the existing lo-tech product needs to be developed to include an interactive voice response element.