Interesting word comes from the Africomm Conference 2011 in Zanzibar, Tanzania, concerning the use of mobile phones and other devices in Africa. It seems that, while 90% of the African population live within range of mobile phone and data service, there's another vital service that gives many of them connection problems.
"Mobile phone usage is increasing rapidly, however the use of mobile Internet services is hindered by users not having access to the power grid to recharge their phones", says Africomm presenter Professor Jukka Manner from Aalto University in Finland. Data services place a heavy drain on phone power sources, limiting a phone owner's ability to fully use the network service if they lack the ability to easily recharge their phone.
Professor Manner was presenting data on the use of a network proxy to reduce smartphone power consumption by three-quarters on 3G wireless networks. He also outlined other methods to boost phone times that include mobile-optimized websites, HTTP compression, and better data caching.