Calling out poverty with mobile phones

[..] not only can such technologies increase earnings, but those increased earnings […], in turn, can be expected to lead to improvements in health and education. In addition, because mobile phones in Kerala are a private sector initiative rather than a development project, other than through perhaps raising interest rates for capital, they do not crowd out investments in other projects. Also unlike most development projects, the service is self-sustaining; mobile phone companies provide service because it is profitable to do so, and fishermen are willing to pay for mobile phones because of the increased profits they receive.

In the Quarterly Journal of Economics Robert Jensen provides evidence for why the provision of information technology - mobile service in this case - ought to be a priority, especially for low-income countries.