Owning a mobile phone can either improve quality of life for the poor, or plunge them deeper into poverty. The benefits and costs to the poor of owning a mobile depend on how efficiently it is used.

Mobile and sms activism, when well-designed and managed has great potential for bringing about change both at a local level, as well as globally.

Microsoft Unlimited Potential are working on ways to reduce the digital divide by adapting new and powerful data collection tools and services to the basic mobile phone