Grameen Phone taking internet to villages

Eight months ago, when Fizaz Ahmed opened an Internet service using a mobile modem in Kapalia Bazar of Jessore, the local people hardly knew what it was as the nearest Internet service was 35 kilometres away. Now the Internet is rapidly changing the lives of the people of about 15 villages around Kapalia Bazar.

Villagers are now buying printouts of documents like passport forms or licenses from Fizaz’s establishment. For Tk 5, a farmer can obtain a listing of prices for any agricultural commodity sold at nearby markets. Students have started exploring admissions in universities and compiling education related information. Mothers and fathers are chatting with their expatriate children or relatives on the Internet where they can see each other through the web-cam.

Fizaz’s Internet service is one of 80 Community Information Centres (CICs) set up with the help of Grameen Phone. Again the Grameen Phone initiative came from a development fund of the GSM Association (GSMA), a trade platform of 12 leading mobile operators of the world. The vision of this scheme is to take internet to remote locations using the GSM technology.

“This is such an educational venture for our community,” says Fizaz, “because people are personally interested to use this technology for various reasons. They come to me for free training on the Internet. I get 25 to 30 customers a day.” The shop generates daily revenue of Tk 350 to Tk 450.

The success story of Fizaz was shared among 6000 participants from 96 countries of the GSMA world congress being held in Singapore from October 15 to 19.

With the help and training from Grameen Phone, Fizaz took micro-credit worth of Tk 50,000 to set up this CIC with a PC, a GSM modem, a scanner, a printer and a web-cam.

Based on the success of this venture, Grameen Phone expects to help roll out 500 such CICs across Bangladesh by the year-end and help spark local entrepreneurship and knowledge dissemination.

“If one per cent of the population can be given Internet access, it will contribute to 4 per cent growth to export,’ said Erik Aas, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Grameen Phone. He added that the CICs are not exactly a business for the Grameen Phone. “From our perspective, we feel that it’s important to give people access to the Internet.”

Addressing a press conference, Erik noted that Bangladesh holds opportunities for the GSM technology. The mobile broadband has remained untapped and GSM will be the main access method for data transfer and internet in the future. Besides, GSM will also be used for money transfer and payments.

“The CIC will be useful for health, education and self-employment,” he added.

Currently Bangladesh has 5.9 lakh fixed Internet users while the government policy targets delivering broadband internet to all villages by 2015.

The country has 2.9 million personal computers, 15 million mobile subscribers and 1.4 million fixed telephones. Of the 15 million mobile subscribers, Grameen alone claims 9.5 million.

Aas noted that Bangladesh has 4 million workers abroad, each of them sending home $100 per month. The expatriates are eager to stay in touch with their families in rural areas, but due to absence of infrastructure, internet communication facilities cannot be offered widely. The CIC is addressing this issue.

The CIC is a business venture, not a charity. It demands investment of only $10,000 to $14,000 each. Each centre can serve 30,000 to 40,000 people of 10 to 15 villages.

Aas pointed out that it is easier to set up the internet access using GSM technology than fixed lines. Therefore in the near future GSM will serve as the main access method for data exchange.

The GSMA Development Fund is also being used for development of other social and environmental initiatives that may or may not be directly linked with mobile phone operation.

According to GSMA Director of Strategic Initiative Ben Soppitt, an environment friendly and cost-efficient bio fuels programme is being implemented under GSMA fund in Nigeria and the same will be implemented soon in India and Bangladesh