Grameenphone Rolls Out Affordable Internet Access Across Bangladesh
17 October 2006
Bangladeshi mobile operator, GSMA and entrepreneurs team up to bring villages online
17th October 2006 - Singapore: Mobile operator GrameenPhone* is rolling out Community Information Centres across rural Bangladesh, giving up to 20 million people the chance to use the Internet and email for the first time. Following a successful pilot conducted with the GSM Association's Development Fund**, GrameenPhone is teaming up with local entrepreneurs to set up approximately 500 centres in communities throughout the country by the end of 2006.
GrameenphoneRun by local entrepreneurs, each centre will contain personal computers connected to GrameenPhone's existing GSM mobile network, which has been upgraded with EDGE technology to offer data transfer speeds of up to 128 kilobits per second. The centres will be located in each Upazilla, or sub-district, of Bangladesh so that they are each within reach of up to 15 villages containing up to 40,000 people.
"GrameenPhone's ground-breaking use of GSM technology has placed Bangladesh in the vanguard of our global push to use mobile networks to bring affordable Internet access and email to the billions of people in the developing world that aren't served by fixed networks," said Rob Conway, the Chief Executive Officer of the GSMA - the global trade association for mobile phone operators. "Through the GSMA's Development Fund, we are encouraging other mobile operators to follow GrameenPhone's lead and rollout similar services that offer shared access to the Internet."
The computers in the 16 centres in the pilot are used by an average of 30 people a day, who pay a small fee to access email or Web pages. Bangladeshis use the centres for a wide variety of business and personal purposes, from accessing health and agricultural information to using government services to video conferencing with relatives overseas. GrameenPhone trains the entrepreneurs so that they can give people advice on how to set up an email account and best make use of the Internet.
"The pilot demonstrated that there is considerable pent-up demand for Internet access in rural Bangladesh and that mobile networks are the best way to meet that demand," said Erik Aas, Chief Executive Officer of GrameenPhone. "Our Community Information Centres make the Internet affordable for ordinary Bangladeshis, while providing a robust revenue stream for local entrepreneurs. We believe widespread access to the Internet will have a profound effect on the social and economic development of Bangladesh."
To help the entrepreneurs keep the cost of Internet access as low as possible, the Community Information Centres also provide local people with other GrameenPhone services, such as payphones (again using GrameenPhone's mobile network) and electronic recharges for prepaid mobile accounts.
About GrameenPhone:
* GrameenPhone Ltd., a GSM operator, is the largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh with more than 9.5 million mobile phone users as of September 2006. The Norwegian communications company Telenor ASA is the majority shareholder (62%) of GrameenPhone while Grameen Telecom (38%) of Bangladesh is the other shareholder. GrameenPhone has another internationally acclaimed initiative called the Village Phone Programme under which Universal Access to telecommunication services are provided in rural areas to people who cannot afford to buy a regular subscription. The Programme also offers the Village Phone operators, mostly poor village women, a good income-earning opportunity. Presently, there are more than 255,000 Village Phones in operation in 55,000 villages around Bangladesh. It has been replicated in some other countries including in Uganda and Rwanda in Africa.
For more information, please visit: http://www.grameenphone.com
Syed Yamin Bakht
General Manager
Information Department
GrameenPhone Ltd.
Mob: +8801711 500577
About the GSM Association and the Development Fund:
The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 215 countries of the world. In addition, more than 180 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.
The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association's members serve more than two billion customers - 82% of the world's mobile phone users.
The GSMA's Development Fund was set up in October 2005 to catalyse the role of mobile technology in social, economic and environmental development. Working with the mobile industry, the development community and governments, the Fund seeks to identify innovative ideas for development that are scalable and sustainable on a global level. By focusing on practical implementation, the Development Fund and its partners create unique knowledge and experience of the role and potential of mobile technology in development.
For more information please visit:
For further information contact:
Mark Smith/David Pringle
GSM Association
/ +44 795 755 6069
Email:press@gsm.org
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