Mobile Phone

Although mobile phone coverage is mostly limited to major cities, it is making rapid advances into pastoral areas in most of the countries in the Eastern Africa region. Therefore the use of cell phone SMS to report and deliver livestock price information to the potential beneficiaries in those areas is seen as a viable option. SMS is a means to send and to receive text messages (words, numbers or alphanumeric) to and from mobile phones or to and from computers via the Internet (E-mail) to mobile phones (http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/sms/intro.shtml). SMS is a part of the GSM technology that has become increasingly popular worldwide since it is much cheaper compared to voice messages. LINKS project trained market monitors in the use of SMS and provided them cell phones and scratch cards to implement the technology (Figure 2). A Cell phone SMS server was installed in Nairobi by LINKS to facilitate sending data directly from remote livestock market locations in Kenya (Isiolo, Garissa, Nairobi, Wajir, Marsabit and Moyale) and relaying back analysis and reports to those areas.