Expatriate Bangladeshi 2000Linking Individuals, Regions, Ideas, and Actions
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Grameen CommunicationsVillage Internet ProgramDr Shahidul AlamDrik Picture Library Ltd.Dhaka Bangladesh
Nov 6, 1998
Courtesy of: Global Amitech
Introduction :Grameen Communications is a non-profit organization committed to poverty alleviation and promotion of democracy. The goal of Grameen Communications through Village Internet Program is the promotion of poverty alleviation measures by reducing migration from villages to cities, creating IT related job opportunities for the rural poor and creating familiarity with computers among the rural population of Bangladesh. Principles :Ownership of modern technology tools will provide direct economic and social benefits to the rural poor in Bangladesh. Village Internet Program initially will be operated by Grameen Communications. After the pilot project period, Grameen borrowers will be able to buy cyber kiosks set up within their villages. Thus the income generation from information technology will be owned by Grameen borrowers. Therefore, Grameen borrowers will be directly benefited using the Internet activities.
There is a large population of educated, unemployed youth, particularly girls, those know functional English and have college or university degrees but are unable to find jobs in cities or rural areas. The Village Internet Program would be able to provide jobs at the village level to many youth groups whose are prefer to work in villages in order to avoid the high living costs associated with Dhaka city.
The flow of goods and services in rural areas are hampered by high mark-ups through village middlemen who distort market conditions for their advantage. The middlemen buy at negligible prices from informal sector artisans and sell at a large profit to urban populations. This entire chain of events occurs because of the lack of information of the market that both village artisans and urban buyers face. If this void could be filled then the benefits to poor entrepreneurs would generate employment, increase income and purchasing power for village residents. Therefore village residents can check current market prices through Village Internet Program.
Many villages in Bangladesh do not have any connection with the outside world. Local residents do not have access to news about their country, their government, education, neighboring markets, or even about job opportunities. Grameen Communications' Village Internet Program is being created to address the lack of information in villages. Using Internet facilities, Grameen Communications will attempt to provide up to date information to village residents about all the daily facets of life. We believe there is a strong market for this type of service because the quality and availability of newspapers is poor and the language used is classical which is difficult for most people to understand.
The Grameen Bank and its associated companies have an infrastructure in rural area of Bangladesh. This will allow for rapid and cost-effective expansion of the pilot project once the prototype cyber kiosk has been developed so that it achieves full-cost recovery and can be managed and owned by the rural poor. Current Internet Access condition in Bangladesh :Bangladesh still using an older communications infrastructure with X.25 PSTN available for Internet dial-up access. T-1s, ISDNs are not available. Since November 1997, there are seven companies who have obtained the right to lease VSATs from the government at high price. These companies are "for profit" and charge their customers high usage fees in order to generate revenue. Moreover, they operate solely in the two major cities, Dhaka and Chittagong. One of these companies is Grameen Cybernet, which provides Internet services to individual and corporate customers in Dhaka city. Two years ago, there were only a handful of Internet users, primarily using email. But in the last year, Internet usage has shoot up to 2,500 customers for Grameen Cybernet alone. But still the rural people have no access to the Internet. Grameen Communications Village Internet Program will provide Internet services to the villagers. Grameen Infrastructure Support:Village Internet Program will be supported by Grameen family of enterprises. The Grameen Bank itself operates in over 36,000 villages through its 1,094 branches and 12,600 office staff. There are a total of 2.2 million families in the villages covered by Grameen Bank branches. An additional partner for the Village Internet Program could be Grameen Telecom, which began providing cellular phone services to Grameen Bank borrowers in March 1997. At present, Grameen Phone, the cellular company providing services in the urban areas, has 15,000 subscribers. There are also 28 Grameen Bank borrowers who have been set up with income generating activities by using cellular phone services. This has been achieved in eight months. Over the next six year, we anticipate one million Grameen Phone subscribers and 50,000 village payphones will be owned and operated by Grameen Bank borrowers. The Los Angeles Times, in a November 10, 1997, article said regarding Grameen Telecom's Village Payphone Program, "Nationwide, each phone operator stands to net an average of $2 a day - more than $700 a year - in a country with an average annual per-capita income of about $250." With this support, Village Internet Program will be able to provide information technology to villages and make familiar the computers and Internet to the village residents. Another company, Grameen Shakti (Energy), which has been developing solar energy for village households could also help in integrating technology into villages by providing cheap power at the village level. Eventually, we could have cyber kiosks that run on solar power and connect to the Internet using a variety of methods like spread spectrum radio, microwave, and laser connections. The Benefits of Internet Usage in Rural Society :The Internet will provide important benefits to rural society in Bangladesh. The theoretical aspects of these benefits are described below. Poverty alleviationThe Village Internet Program will create jobs in rural areas. The owners of the cyber kiosks can earn money from selling services. Additionally, using subletting services, Grameen Communications will provide data-entry jobs to trained village residents. An employee of Grameen Foundation USA will work with the Village Internet Program to identify North American and European corporations willing to outsource their data entry needs to Grameen Communications. Grameen Foundation USA will also help data entry personnel establish a track record by setting up tests and training with companies. Reduced the migration from village to cityThe lack of job opportunities in villages creates mass migration from villages to cities. However, there are not enough jobs in cities to provide employment to the migrant villagers. As a result most migrant to cities end up living in slums, displaced from their homes and unable to find jobs. Access to the Internet will open many possibilities for employment. From data entry to web marketing. Village artisans will have access to global markets. Reduced the impact of the middlemanVillage residents (both producers and consumers) can check current market prices by connecting to central computers. This can be done either through terminals or voice-mail. Human ResourcesFuture programmers could be nurtured by giving village children familiarity> with computers. For instance, there could be gaming hours when children could play computer games, perhaps for a small fee. Potential for Full Cost Recovery and Economic ViabilityA. The Cyber Kiosk The Cyber Kiosk is the basic building block in the Village Internet Program. Two or three rooms require for the Cyber Kiosk. The location of Cyber Kiosk will be in a suitable position of a village. There will be one Internet connection via a VSAT and several multimedia computers and terminals. Now the Bengali fonts are available for all Windows based programs, the general user in Bangladesh will not be face any problem in using computers for basic tasks like word processing. Training will be provided for more difficult uses. The Cyber Kiosks will initially be owned and managed by Grameen Communications but eventually would be transferred to Grameen Bank borrowers. Future Cyber Kiosks would be owned and operated by Grameen Bank borrowers who would pay a flat fee to Grameen Communications for the primary Internet connection and also for computer services and repairs. Grameen Bank financing would allow experienced members to finance start up costs such as computer equipment, staff salaries and connection fees. The Cyber Kiosks would sell the following products and services to the nearby villages: Email Facilities There is a large and growing Bangladeshi expatriate population in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. At present, it is difficult for village residents to contact by telephone and regular mail with their relatives and friends who work and staying in abroad, because of the high costs and long time delays associated with international correspondence. Therefore, village residents could use email facilities to contact with friends and relatives at instant and low cost. Word Processing Services Cyber Kiosk users will use workstations to write letters, resumes, college applications, and also use to make documents like newsletters, advertisements and announcements. Printing Services Many uses can be made of printing services. For instance, using Bengali fonts, which are now widely available, artisans could print out advertisements, families could print wedding announcements and letters. Publishing Services More difficult word processing work like small newspapers and magazines could be done with technical help from Grameen Communications staff. With Bengali fonts, local newspapers and magazines could be started and run from Cyber Kiosks. Internet Phone Usage Village residents could call their relatives who work and live in abroad through Internet Phone. They could avoid high international phone rates and long regular mail delays. Computer Classes Grameen Communications will initially offer computer classes with modest enrollment fees and will train Grameen Bank borrowers in providing computer training and services to village users. Data-entry Grameen Communications will train villagers to work in data-entry for global customers. Grameen Bank borrowers, as Cyber Kiosk owners, will be trained to become potential hubs of personnel recruitment for data entry needs. The companies outsourcing data entry needs to Grameen Communications would get their needs met at highly competitive prices due to the low cost of labor in Bangladesh. The fee would include a small commission for Grameen Communications and the Cyber Kiosk owner with the bulk going to the person entering the data. This will generate income for the data entry person, the Cyber Kiosk owner and for Grameen Communications. To help expedite searches for data entry companies abroad, Grameen Foundation USA will hire a staff member for the project who will work to ensure that a careful global search is conducted for networking companies and data entry personnel. The staff member will also ensure that proper training is imparted and a track record is built before data entry personnel are hired full time. In addition, the staff member will oversee quality control. For the first two years, this staff member will be funded by grant, thereafter, Grameen Foundation USA will earn a commission on each new customer identified and the staff person (if needed) will be funded by this income. Online Information Services Grameen Communications will maintain online news sites, computer literacy tools, job search information, national and international job databases, networking services for friends and family abroad and will host online newspapers. Voice-mail Information Line / Bulletin board system Grameen Communications staff will download current market information about prices for goods and services and record it on voice mail. Village residents can call in and hear pre-recorded messages clarifying market conditions. Web Shopping Mall Grameen Communications will provide assistance in advertising and selling products made by village artisans over the Internet. This will be done in a manner similar to the PeopLink project. Cyber kiosks will be set up with digital cameras and Grameen Communications will provide training on how to use the web for marketing. Translation/software development Software programming will be taught and initially members will be trained on modifying and translating free programs with source code, like RED-HAT linux for the Bangladeshi market and at price levels that are appropriate for the Bangladeshi market. After training, members can venture into commercial programming and translation. Grameen is considering establishing a new company focused on building a software export industry in Bangladesh (as has been done in India) and it is envisaged that the cyber kiosks would be involved in this. Pilot Project Design :A Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) will connect a small, remote village to the outside world. Within the Grameen compound, the Cyber Kiosk, initially owned by Grameen Communications, will have 4 workstations and 8 terminals. The workstations will have multimedia computers with printers and users can work on many tasks, from word processing and resume writing to Internet phone usage, browsing and publishing web pages. The terminals are text only and can be used for email and data entry and can also print to the workstation printers. A small hut in an adjoining village will have 4 terminals and a workstation connected via spread spectrum radio to the main station. A Grameen Communication staff member and two trainees will work with a group of Grameen Bank borrowers on how to use a terminal to send email to their relatives in Kuwait. It is important that the Grameen Bank borrowers learn how to use and maintain the equipment because they will eventually be the owners of the cyber kiosks. |
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