This article on mobile phone use in developing countries came out a few days ago. Among its assertions:
- 22 percent of Vietnamese own a mobile phone.
- In the Philippines, more than 4 million people use their cell phones to conduct online transactions.
- Afghanistan has 20,000 fixed-line phones and 2 million cell-phone subscribers!
- According to the UN International Telecommunication Union, cell phone subscriptions in the developing world rose to 1.4 billion at the end of 2005 (compared to 800,000 in countries with “advanced” economies).
Today, mobile phones are the primary form of telecommunication in most emerging economies, fulfilling much the same role as fixed-line phone networks did in facilitating growth in the United States and Europe after World War II.
This represents a vast opportunity for using digital means to spread the gospel in the developing world. The challenge, as with any digital means of outreach, is finding ways to use mobile technology as a way of intriguing the unbeliever enough to want to be immersed in Christian community, where a full presentation of the gospel can be made.
More Information:
Web Evangelism Guide: Mobile Phones and the Internet — Using cellphones for online evangelism
White African: Mobile Phones as Platform in Africa
White African: A Web Technology Idea For Africa
I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
