VIRTUAL SIMcard out to provide Phone for ALL

The future of connecting the world is here already. Movirtu and Airtel may commence empowerment from Africa

The goal of connecting half of the world inhabitants who are yet to be connected may be getting closer by the day. Given: The issue of poverty is one that must be addressed since the 2.4 billion people who live on less than $2 a day cannot afford even the cheapest most basic mobile phone. Movirtu, a young London based company has come up with an idea of providing Virtual SIM cards that can be used on borrowed or shared phones and it has been tested positive in a few countries in Africa where GSM standard is the predominant mobile technology. The latest story is that Airtel, which operates in 17 countries in Africa, has bought into it.

And this is how it works : Put simply, Movirtu does away with the requirement for a physical SIM card. Instead, it allows operators to sell virtual SIMs, which exist only as numbers. To use one, a subscriber simply borrows a phone and enters a short USSD code which tells the network that the phone is now using another number. The subscriber can then make and receive calls from his own number (at his own expense) on the borrowed phone. All that has changed is an entry in the mobile network's visitor location register, a backend database. To return the phone, the subscriber must enter the code again, and all is back to normal. It is not that you walk to a stranger and ask to borrow his phone. Consider that children grow older and demand their own phones, families could get them virtual numbers so they have their own identity, without having to invest in extra devices. Or a group of a few people could share the price of a phone and use it with their individual SIMs. Think of the 'roadside business' that can generate from there. A little patience will see the merit in this solution to bring the whole world into the network. At least so say the idealists of the Virtual SIMcards solution.