Grameen Telecom's Village Phone Programme in Rural Bangladesh: A Multi-Media Case Study

Publication Date: 17 Mar 2000
Published by: Dr. Don Richardson, Ricardo Ramirez, Moinul Haq
TeleCommons Development Group(TDG)
512 Woolwich St., Suite 200, Guelph
Ontario, Canada N1H 3X7
Phone: (519) 821-5787
Email:don@tdg.ca Web:www.telecommons.com
Document Type: Case Study

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Grameen Telephone: Aiding rural development

This study was undertaken to investigate the impact of the Grameen Phone and Grameen Telecom provision of micro-credit cellular phone service on poverty reduction and the socioeconomic situation of women village phone operators (VPO) and users at large.

The Paper describes Grameen's village phone as:

• The best available technical solution and organizational solution to rural telecommunication access.
• A unique combination of revolving loan system with cellular phone loan scheme.
• A device providing a large consumer surplus and immeasurable quality of life benefits.
• A device addressing gender issues for the first time in telecom service provision.

• Telecom regulations hinder the use of rural telephone for rural development benefits.
• Grameen telephones are used mainly for discussing remittances and social calls.
• Users are willing to pay high rates for overseas calls for financial matters.
• Grameen Telecom Village Phones bring in three times revenue against urban phones.
• A family member working overseas is the most important factor determining phone use.
• Female phone users prefer to use a phone operated by a woman phone owner.

• WLL and other options can provide much better bandwidth and cost of service as compared to cellular technology for internet access.
• Attracting telecom operators and equipment vendors with a solid business case relieving them of researching rural markets.
• Micro-credit programs tied to the development of Public Calling Office (PCO)-type micro-enterprises to increase rural access to telecommunication systems.