Introduction of electronic airtime recharge and other innovative mobile services in Bolivia The cost of physical distribution of goods and services in a large and mountainous country such as Bolivia are high and ultimately paid for by the consumers. Smart use of IT solutions however can tremendously lower transaction costs at the benefit of the supply chain and consumers alike. A case in point is prepaid airtime for cell phones, which is presently mostly distributed by way of scratch cards. Aside from other drawbacks for the vendor and the consumer, the cost of printing and distribution of scratch cards is disproportionally high. Electronic recharge of cell phones is far more efficient, and is gaining ground in many countries, but the current informal distribution without automatic hardcopy invoicing, means that the system is illegal in Bolivia.The applicant, MovilGate from Argentina, and local partner Unipersonal from Bolivia, recognised the business opportunity and intend to cooperate with IT developer Kiev SRL, also from Bolivia, to penetrate this market.The project partners will introduce an innovative solution for electronic distribution of prepaid airtime to the benefit of the cell phone operators as well as consumers. At the core of this innovative solution is a point of sale (POS) terminal installed at the retailer. The POS terminal is a portable Mobile GPRS enabled device providing real time online connection to a back-office administration, designed to dispense prepaid cellular airtime and other prepaid services. The POS terminal is equipped with a printer to supply receipted evidence of service sale. This system allows for flexible operations processes, commission distribution and fraud control. It will make it possible to continue and expand the electronic distribution of prepaid airtime in a legal manner, so that the supply chain can benefit from significant efficiency gains, taxes are paid where they are due and consumers ultimately benefit from an increasing variety of services.MovilGate, Unipersonal and Kiev will set up a new joint venture in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, creating 18 medium-/high-level jobs. The innovative technology that will be introduced not only increases the efficiency of prepaid airtime distribution, while complying with all legal tax requirements, but will also open the possibilities of a wide range of new consumer services, and generate additional income for some 1,250 small retailers.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)In the ICT sector, CSR is usually not a big issue. It is more than clear that the value of highly skilled staff and costly investments in training, are an incentive for partners to treat their employees well. Working conditions are therefore far above average, including good salaries and bonus packages. Although the sector is dominated by men, the joint venture will preferentially hire women and physically disabled persons where possible. The CSR policy will include clauses on sexual harassment, discrimination, child labour and bribery, all of which will be strictly prohibited.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsIn the ICT world, highly trained staff is crucial, and it is in the joint venture's own best interest to keep their employees motivated. Salaries will be at least 3 times the legal minimum wage for medium-level employees. In addition to these salaries, the company will pay all social security contributions (pension fund, healthcare insurance) and a 13th month. The company will introduce a salary schedule and performance assessment scheme so that employees know ahead what salary development they can expect and how their performance will be assessed.•	Innovation/Transfer of knowledgeA completely new service will be provided, that will facilitate recharging of mobile phones in distant regions, but will also lay down the foundations for a wide range of additional services in the future.•	Chain effectsImpact on local suppliersLocal suppliers of Mobile Phone services will benefit from the broad electronic distribution infrastructure, represented by the 1,250 (later 10,000) point-of-sales terminals.Impact on local customers or consumersLocal consumers, the majority of whom do not have bank accounts, will benefit from the fine maze of POS terminals to make electronic payments as well as to buy a wide range of services. These benefits come on top of the substantial facilitation of recharging their pre-paid mobile phones, the main purpose of the project.•	Impact on the sectorVendors of mobile phone airtime are usually small shops who also sell cigarettes, snacks, paper and office gear, etc. The availability of a POS terminal (at no cost!) will eventually lead to new business, be it payment services (the majority of the population does not have a bank account), or else entertainment, like electronic games, ringtones or music for the mobile phone (again the majority of the population does not have a private computer, let alone an internet connection).•	EnvironmentSlightly positive. Electronic recharging will eliminate the use of scratch cards (130 million are discarded each year in Bolivia), which result in waste of materials, as well as disproportionate distribution (transport) impact. To set up an electronic airtime-recharging distribution network, with 1,250 points of sale, that allows low cost and verifiable cell phone recharging operations, as well as a broad variety of new consumer services.