Jan Chipchase, an reasearcher for Nokia, has a fascinating article on the use of phones in Uganda. Although it's clear that people will move to individual phones if they're affordable, it's also clear that the benefits of having communication capabilities, even with shared phones, is very high. There have been other studies talking about the opportunities for microbusinesses as 'phone ladies' etc.

This article discusses some of the unique services that have arisen in Uganda:

Sente is the informal practices of sending and receiving money that leverages public phone kiosks and trusted networks. In Uganda the word Sente has two meanings the first being 'money' and the second 'the sending of money as airtime'. It works like this:

Joe lives in Kampala and wants to send his sister Vicky 10,000 Ugandan Shillings - about 4 Euros. He buys a pre-paid top up card for that amount but instead of topping up his own phone calls the local phone kiosk operator in Vicky's village. The phone kiosk operator uses the credit to top up his own phone, takes a commission of anywhere between 10 and 30% and passes the rest onto Vicky in cash. The kiosk operator then resells the airtime at a profit (it is after all his business).

Sente is particularly relevant in a country where there is limited access to formal banking infrastructure and is largely driven by necessity and convenience. The receiver doesn't need a bank account, merely access to a friendly phone kiosk, and the risk of theft is reduced because there is no need to carry cash. The Sente process can take as little as 5 minutes whereas using regular banking infrastructure can absorb a full day's time with additional travel costs (a comparison of costs between regular bank infrastructure and Sente are outlined on slide 29 of the accompanying presentation).