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M-gov still incipient in Brazil

Most government agencies don't provide mobile services - and have no immediate plans to do so, says research.
Written by Angelica Mari, Contributing Writer

The majority of Brazilian government agencies don't provide mobile services to citizens, according to a recent study by the Center of Studies on Information and Communication Technologies (Cetic.br).

The survey covered 572 public sector bodies between October and December 2013 and found that 66 percent of departments lack any kind of provision of services via mobile devices.

In terms of future adoption of m-gov, things are not looking up either: while 46 percent of the agencies polled stated they are planning to offer some kind of mobile service, 49 percent are not planning to provide such services to citizens.

The Brazilian public sector might be refusing to keep up with the way in which citizens communicate and transact, however smartphones represent the majority of the mobile phone market in Brazil and the number of Brazilians using mobile devices for purchase of products and services has skyrocketed with an 84.2 percent increase over the last 12 months.

Additionally, the number of Brazilians that access the internet through mobile devices reached 52,5 million people in 2014 — 31 percent of all Brazilians older than 10 years old. Back in 2011, 15 percent accessed the internet through their mobiles.

In countries such as Brazil, where residential internet penetration is relatively low and mobile connectivity and penetration is high, the provision of m-government services makes sense. Fellow BRIC nation India has a similar connectivity landscape but has done more than Brazil so far in the m-gov front: the country has plans to make all government websites mobile-ready, with the Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG) being used as the enabling infrastructure.

 

 

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