[ti:Mobile Telephones Changing Lives in Africa] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Technology Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.69]this is the Technology Report in Special English. [00:07.32]The World Bank estimates there are [00:10.24]about 650 million mobile phone users [00:14.67]in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. [00:19.50]That is greater than the number of users [00:22.68]in the United States and European Union. [00:26.82]Samia Melhem works for the World Bank [00:30.89]to increase information technologies in Africa. [00:36.47]She says mobile phones [00:38.50]are the fastest growing technology on the continent. [00:43.53]"Faster than TV, definitely faster than electricity. [00:47.15]More people have access to mobile phones and hence communication. [00:51.23]More people have internet access today in Africa [00:55.36]than they have access to water, clean water, or even sanitation. [00:59.96]So we can say that this has been the most significant revolution [01:04.42]in terms of changing the African landscape [01:07.49]and how people live their daily life." [01:10.46]CNN television recently named seven ways of life [01:15.59]it says have been revolutionized because of mobile phones. [01:20.77]They include political activism, education, [01:24.64]entertainment, disaster management, agriculture and health. [01:30.97]Another area is banking. [01:33.76]Reports say half or more of the adults [01:38.03]in Gabon, Kenya and Sudan use mobile money. [01:44.12]Rene Mendy sells goods in the streets of Dakar, Senegal. [01:49.57]But he never had enough money to open a bank account. [01:54.34]Now he uses a mobile phone banking service called Orange Money. [02:01.58]With his telephone, he can add or take out as little as one dollar. [02:08.34]He can make payments and send money to family members who live far away. [02:15.82]Orange Money says it serves four million customers in ten countries. [02:23.98]The World Bank's Samia Melham notes that the French company [02:28.70]is facing competition from other mobile banking services. [02:34.25]"The mobile banking is a huge trend. [02:37.54]And people in the West don't understand it, [02:39.65]because most people have bank accounts and they have credit cards. [02:43.47]It [mobile banking] is the instantaneous acquisition of cash at a much lower cost. [02:48.84]The cost is the cost of sending an SMS, [02:51.11]which is almost nothing compared to what traditional transfer agents, [02:57.11]like Western Union, would charge - 10 dollars or more [03:01.33]for a particular money transfer." [03:05.10]In education, the United Nations agency UNESCO [03:10.04]is holding its second Mobile Learning Week in Paris later this month. [03:16.58]Conference delegates are to discuss how mobile phone use [03:22.12]can increase the number of people who read. [03:26.34]Other issues include how mobile technologies can support teachers, [03:33.34]and make it easier for girls and women to receive an education.