Need your phone charged?
...because I know a man who can.
Here's a roadside stall in Northern Uganda where the owner claimed he could charge pretty much any handset, all thanks to the solar panel he had rigged to his roof. All this in an community where access to running water is scarce and sanitation is far from guaranteed. But with this sort of resourcefulness, it really could be 2013 in many developing communities much sooner than you think.
ICT's are transforming lives in rural Africa and this is set to increase. Broadband internet is already widely available in many communities, but mobile broadband is where everything seems to be heading. Of course all the major players know this and this is why they are scrambling of a piece of the African pie. Orange, Vodafone and others are all heavily represented in Africa...it is just a matter of time.