Rural Mobile

Rural Mobile: Connecting villages through Cellular

Presentation made by Escotel to
Digital Divide India Task Force Meeting, 26-27 November, 2000

Starved of modern infrastructure including Basic Telephone

India’s topography is such that one quickly passes from islands of relative urban affluence to vast expanse of rural areas---not exactly poor, but ...

What can we do for our Rural Economy where bulk of India lives

Fortunately, due to wonders of GSM technology while Escotel coverage principally was planned for 110 towns major highways

It covered by default > 2500 villages, where 7.5 Mn people live & aspire for a better life.

Grameen Phone Sewa is born

Benefits foreseen

Enable the entire village to stay in touch with the world & vice versa

Enable migrant labour & their families to speak to each other, whenever they want.

Enable traders in villages to transact business real time & know the latest market trends.

Villagers can contact police/ administration immediately in case of any emergency

Enable the sick & the disabled to talk anywhere in the world from their beds.

Enable local government administration to stay in touch with remote areas

Provide means of livelihood for prospective PCO operators

Escotel 'Grammen Phone Seva' is born

Entry Cost : While the market price with a handset is

US$ 250, we subsidized this by 50% to USD125, making it affordable.

Usage Cost : Subsidized by 50% to USD 0.05 per 30 sec call

Operator Selection : One per village, recommended by the Village Headman.

Preferably handicapped, Ex-Servicemen War widow, or

unemployed educated youth.

Operator Margin :

Rs. 3 to Rs.5 / call (USD 0.07 to 0.10) depending on call duration,

economic status of the user & whether it was home delivery service!

Operator economics:

Investment : US$ 125

Returns : 10 calls/day @ US$ 0.10 /call

= US$ 30 / month

Payback period 4 months

Customer benefits

Making Calls

For a one minute call, the total cost is approximately 17 cents (Rs. 7.50)
The alternative is to

- travel miles

- spend 2 - 4 hours

- spend on bus fare and some refreshments

- spend similar amount on landline PCO

- And still not be guaranteed a connection

Receiving Calls

From no contactability to 24 hour instant contactability from anywhere in the world

Payment Mode Prepaid technology to the rescue

Customer : Operator requests balance confirmation

before and after the call and informs the customer about his bill

Operator:

- Given prepaid connection

- Keeps recharge coupons in stock

- Replenishes stock when required from nearest town.

The Response has been amazing

Over 500 installations in 8 months

Without exception the villagers & govt. sector now look upon cellular technology not as a toy for the rich, but a means to

Empower & Enrich their Lives

Another revolution in the waiting for the rural masses!

Further benefits: 'Turant Taar' ( SMS Service )

Allows the villagers to send messages from the village phone to other mobiles anywhere in the world at very low cost

Over 9 billion messages are already being sent across the world today

As the use of English language increases and as new handsets start supporting vernacular languages ...

Innovative Uses - Mobile Internet

Update of Mandi / Commodity prices for villagers directly from web using SMS for a small fee

Train Schedule and reservation position through SMS / WAP

Location based services and Cell Broadcast to allow services/information relevant to the villagers to be made available to them immediately eg storm warnings

Way Forward -- Endless possibilities we rollout over the

As we rollout over the next 5 years beyond the urban areas, we will cover more and more villages
The model can be readily used by all cellular operators in all developing countries to immediately connect the villagers digitally to the world