connecting rural communities asia 2009

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Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation

Events & Conferences

Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi, India

23 25 June, 2009

This report is a summary of all discussions andpresentations from the Connecting RuralCommunities Asia 2009 conference hosted and

organized by the CommonwealthTelecommunications Organisation (CTO) andattended by policy makers, regulators, chiefexecutive officers and spokespeoplerepresenting governments, parastatalorganisations, non-governmental organisations,civil society and the private sector, fromCommonwealth countries in Asia and elsewhere.

Connecting Rural Communities Asia 2009

Delivering sustainable connectivity for all


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Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation Page | 2

Contents

REPORT SUMMARY..................................................................................................................... 4SESSIONS CONTENT ................................................................................................................... 7

SUMMARY OF DAY 1 - 23 June 2009 ...................................................................................... 7EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN ADDRESS .............................................................................................. 8KEYNOTE ADDRESS ............................................................................................................... 10PANEL DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 11REGULATORY PANEL DISCUSSION .......................................................................................... 12Need for Broadband ............................................................................................................... 15PANEL DISCUSSIONS ............................................................................................................. 16Assessment of M-Content requirements in India and Uganda ..................................................... 19Employing Public Private People partnerships to deliver sustainable connectivity programmes ...... 21Solving the major technical barriers to increasing rural tele-density: Developing a world class

telecentre rural development programme ................................................................................. 21Can micro-payments and expert guidance be best used for community-led connectivity projects? . 23

SUMMARY OF DAY 2 - 24 June 2009 .................................................................................... 24PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................................................................................... 26What are we working towards Realising the benefits of greater rural connectivity through the

delivery of e-Services ............................................................................................................. 26100,000 Common Services Centre in Rural India: A Unique Service Delivery Platform for G2C and

B2C Services .......................................................................................................................... 26Using Mobile technologies to take CSCs to the Indian Citizen ..................................................... 29Providing access to 287 million Indian population: Ground level perspective ................................ 30Session Summary ................................................................................................................... 31

GSMA Workshop........................................................................................................................ 31Connecting Rural Asia to the Internet with Mobile Broadband .................................................... 31Connecting the World ............................................................................................................. 31Accelerating Mobile Broadband ................................................................................................ 32Emerging Scenario: Mobile Broadband ..................................................................................... 33Connecting India .................................................................................................................... 34


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Session Summary ................................................................................................................... 35Ensuring Rural Communities can make the most of the digital transformation ............................. 36

PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSIONS .............................................................................................. 36Improve your life mobile healthcare in developing countries .................................................... 36Mhealth: A potential tool for health care delivery in emerging economies .................................... 37Community Services by e-nabled Centers ................................................................................. 38E-learning A paradigm shift in rural education ........................................................................ 38Inclusive Development through Converged Public Services - Role of new media and web2.0

Technologies ......................................................................................................................... 404RF delivers Carrier-Class connectivity ..................................................................................... 41Constraint in penetration in rural areas and possible strategies .................................................. 42

SUMMARY OF DAY 3 - 25 June 2009 ........................................................................................ 44Presentations were made by: ......................................................................................................... 46

KEYNOTE ADDRESS ................................................................................................................... 47PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 47

Bringing networks to life - Broadband Village (BV) .................................................................... 47 Extending Internet to Rural Pakistan: Some Lessons ................................................................. 49MERComs: Mobile Based Solution for Tracking Social Welfare Entitlements of Rural Communities . 50Successfully targeting the poorest areas and the hard to reach populations ................................ 52Asia-Africa Partnership on ICT Development ............................................................................. 54Asia-Africa cooperation: Delivering innovative collaboration - Practical Insights from Successful

Schemes - Pan-African E-Network Project................................................................................. 55Tejas Solutions for Bridging the Telecom Divide ........................................................................ 59

Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................................. 61


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encouraging for cellular mobile. Numbers of networks have increased. Awareness and content have

improved. The growth has been tremendous. Spectrum sharing and network sharing is important.

However coordination among different agencies in the telecom sector is lacking. Research and

development is important for development of quality content.

There has been an increase in teledensity from 3% in 2000 to 37% in 2009. The mobile subscriber base isaround 430 million. Phones have overtaken radios as the primary communication tool. Universal service

obligation includes increased empirical evidence.

Encompassing everything to spread telecommnications across all areas is essential. Challenges includehuge size, varied infrastructure and topography; issues of afford ability and accessibility. Supportive policyenvironment, improving telecom infrastructure and growth in rural telephony are the key challenges for the

telecom industry which needs to be addressed.

Today, policy makers, mobile operators, donors and users see the mobile phone as more than a tool fortalking. This can partly be attributed to the growing popularity of Value Added Services (VAS) delivered

through mobile phones. Although overcoming the obstacles appears to be a daunting task, there is cause

to be positive because there are a number of opportunities to increase the required types of m-content.

Indeed, scope for increased collaboration, the falling price of entry-level handsets and strong examples of

best practice from other countries are all encouraging factors which will aid in meeting users current and

future m-content requirements in both countries.

Sri Lankan experience with telecentres has been that the telecentre owner is the key. Depending onhis/her enthusiasm, entrepreneurship and community involvement, any telecentre model may it operate

as a business, in a temple, youth group, womens group, it will be a success.

Connecting Rural Communities is a major priority as it brings together access and development. Access toinformation alone will not drive broad-based adoption of IT solutions. Skills development and capacity

building are critical to popularize IT in rural communities. Information Technology can provide enhanced

livelihoods to rural communities of India.

A quantum of information that people require can be provided through mobile phones, and this systemdoes not have the kind of constraints that the setting up of a typical CSC can have, namely, requirement

of adequate space, infrastructure, and bandwidth constraints that can incapacitate telecentres.

There are 1 billion people in the emerging markets who do not have a bank account but do have a mobilephone and these are the kind of people who will be directly benefitted by programmes like Mobile Money

for the Unbanked.

Policy makers in many countries have found immediate benefit by taking measures that accelerated thegrowth of mobile broadband in their country and that should act as a catalyst for early adoption of an

enabling policy framework in countries that have areas yet untouched by mobile broadband technology.


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At a time when the healthcare systems are under a lot of pressure, mobile communications can improveand assist the current healthcare systems especially when we have more that 3 billion people who own

mobile phones.

There is lack of basic infrastructure in healthcare, education, connectivity, and therefore the need is to fillin those gaps by identifying, prioritising and categorising the gaps and providing those services. The key

lesson learnt from the rural experience is to build need driven services for target population.

In case of Pakistan, there is huge potential for service differentiation by developing into the role of being aservice provider, both with regards to content aggregation, content creation and content distribution

Lack of access to reliable, quality information in time linked to rural livelihoods impairs productivi ty andaffects profitability of village based occupation, enterprises and business. Lack of real time information

access systems disallow informed decision making in services such as credit, investment, sale, purchase

etc. Mobile Phone based Communication Systems can deliver value based services provided there is a

sustainable institutional framework of operations which meets the need of rural communities.

There is much India and Africa can share in terms of knowledge and material capacities for thecommunities to excel - Africa has the market, ideas, natural resources and initiatives going on, while Asia

has technology, e.g. wireless technologies and vast experiences in community services; like, telemedicine,

data centres using mobile services, etc.

It is projected that mobile subscribers in India will reach 500Mn by 2010 and the bulk of the growth in future has

to be from villages. However rural teledensity is languishing at ~12. Only ~3% of the 6 lakh Indian villages are

serviced by BSNL, the largest Telecom Service Provider in India today. As laying down infrastructure for fixed line

broadband is not feasible WIMAX and 3G are being hailed as the best option to tackle the problem.


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SESSIONS CONTENT

SUMMARY OF DAY 1 - 23 June 2009

The Connecting Rural Communities Asia 2009 conference began with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp .

The honourable guests in the ceremony included: Dr. N K Goyal, President, Communications and Manufacturing

Association of India; Mr. S.R. Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India;

Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology; Dr Garbrah, CEO, Commonwealth

Telecommunications Organisation.

The conference began with a welcome address by Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, CEO, Commonwealth

Telecommunications Organisation.

Dr Garbrah provided an overview of the role, vision and mission of CTO in ushering members towards their

Millennium Development Goals and assuring them a voice in the emerging global village. The main mission

statements of CTO was explained as :

Offering highest quality programmes for capacity development, knowledge sharing and information services tomember countries.

Deepening, expanding and diversifying partnerships between governments, businesses and their organizationto reduce global poverty and achieve Millennium Development Goals for ICTs

Helping to bridge the digital and knowledge divide, especially in the five key sectors of food and agriculture,education, heath, e-government and e commerce;

Facilitating the successful development of telecommunications and other businesses to support social andeconomic development objectives of government and civil society.

In the last operational year, the CTOs programme development team successfu lly delivered a number of large

scale projects on behalf of widely differing interest groups. Major industry leaders called on the CTO team to

examine the use of local e-content to improve e-governance in Ghana, India and South Africa and assess mobile

users m-content requirements in India and Uganda.

Some of the key challenges in Digital Divide were brought out in the presentation. These included:

Asias rural urban digital divide is a topic that needs to be addressed. Emphasis needs to be onbroadband provision, Internet expansion and rural connectivity.

Policy failures have to be taken into consideration and there is a need for national initiatives by thegovernment through competitive private sector participation.


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To overcome barriers in Digital Divide in Asia and India, government led drive through e-governance fordelivery needs to be brought about.

Aggressive broadband policies and subsidizing transmission media costs Unified licensing to enable connectivity Encourage replication of successful models.

The Good News

In rural connectivity, the good news is that the building blocks are in place. Policies to promote rural connectivity

have been taken; operators are looking towards new and successful business models. Rural demand exists and so

does technology and funding.

The key factor that remains is PPP i.e. Public-Private-Peoples Partnership. People of the community have to be

included as drivers for future growth.

Thus, connectivity and accessibility in rural areas need to be addressed. CTOs role in this has been widespread. It

creates universal service and provides access to funding associations. CTO is dealing with funders, operators and

vendors, investors, funding agencies and others to help bring about universal accessibility and connectivity to bring

about social and economic development.

The proceedings of the first day are summarized below.

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN ADDRESS

Mr. Shankar Agrawal,

Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Government of India

Rural connectivity comes very close to enablement of the community. Growth in India has primarily come about

through the enablement of people in rural areas. Connectivity and communication form the key tools to bring

about development in rural areas. Basic infrastructural provision should also include connectivity. Today, India is

growing at a growth rate of 7%. This can further be increased by leveraging tools of ICT.

India is a huge and diverse country and to keep the country unified and strengthen the union, an effective system

of communication needs to be set in place. Scope of the use of ICTs in development may include education,

health and financial inclusion


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In the domain of education, key government projects like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan can be made more innovative

and effective through the use of ICTs in the course content. Telemedicine can help the rural poor access health

information and reduce waiting time both for the patients and the doctor.

Access to information and e-governance will create opportunities for every citizen. The vision of Department of

Telecom and DIT is to create public services all across the country. The Honorable President Smt Pratibha Patil

has stated that the government is committed to provide broad band connectivity to each and every panchayat in

the rural areas. By December 2009, it is expected that all blocks in India would have connectivity. 40,000 CSCs

have already been completed. With key measures in the field of connectivity, the growth rate is bound to shoot up.

Telecom connectivity in rural areas pose a challenge and yet a highly profitable enterprise. Telecom companies

across the country understand the business imperative of expanding into this domain.

India has 63.5 million telecom subscribers in rural areas, which includes 52.5 million wireless and 11 million wire

lines approximately 7.5 million net additions each quarter. Telecom penetration in rural areas is about 7.9% and

average revenue collected per user is Rs 150. According to ITU report of May 2008, India has connected 91% of

its some 600,000 villages with payphones.

Some of the challenges of rural connectivity have included:

Low income and geographical variance which pose difficulties for network layout as well as for setting up ofdistribution channels in remote areas.

Low average revenue per user generated by rural customers does not offset return on investment andrevenue for rural outlay for private operators.

Lag in the accrual and disbursement of Universal Service Obligation funds for setting up technologicallyadvanced schemes, including IP based network, Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) also poses a

problem.

Besides there are non-availability of sufficient back-haul capacity between district headquarters and theblock headquarters in rural areas. In some cases the optical fibre network only reaches up to district

headquarters.

Effective strategies have to be brought out in the following domains:

Devising means for efficient connectivity to be provided at the earliest possible time Devising cost effective measures Devising new technology with newer bandwidths.


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There is an urgent need to shift emphasis from the present village phone terminal subsidy and individual district

exchange line subsidy to infrastructure growth empowering subsidy. There is also the need for customized

applications and content in local languages in the handsets to suit rural subscribers.

Steps need to be taken for a comprehensive network expansion which have been identified by stakeholders.

Business models that are tailored to reduce operational costs and promote savings on capital expenditure are being

redefined to meet the rural opportunity. Operators can learn from interesting business models that have been

experimented across the developing world for expanding rural connectivity.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Mr. S.R. Rao

Additional Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India

Driving rural connectivity in partnership with local people: The example of telecenters

Rural population in India has seen several developments over the last few years in the field of connectivity and

communication. Mobile penetration has increased; infrastructure and employment in these areas have seen

remarkable expansion; Rural teledensity has increased by 15% by the end of 2008.

One of the advantages that India can be credited with is the low tariffs in telecom sector. Mobile penetration has

therefore increased several folds. There are several pillars for rural connectivity: These include Infrastructure and

access; Awareness of technology and applications; Reliable citizen centric services.

One of the key factors of Bharat Nirman is Inclusive Growth by engaging rural communities.

Sustainable Telecentres: Cases from India

The telecentre movement is gaining momentum in the developing countries. Telecentres can be seen as a

community resource that can help with development among marginalised populations. In Asia, most telecentres

are still experimental and supported by agencies external to the communities they serve.

Two examples of sustainable rural telecentre initiatives from India are: One that involves a private company that

delivers high quality agriculture information services and the second, a franchise of government services to local

investors.

The Samaikya Agritech P. Ltd., Andhra Pradesh is a company that operates 18 Agritech Centres which providecommercial agricultural support services to farmers. Samaikya's Agritech Centres have qualified agricultural


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graduates who are equipped with computers linked to the head office in Hyderabad by modem. The centres offers:

technical assistance to member farmers, including seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides; machinery rental; tools and

spares for sale; soil and water analyses; field mapping; weekly field inspections; field visits by specialists; and

weather monitoring.

Farmers register with centres and pay a fee per growing season. Support services are specific to the fields

registered and include detailed information concerning the farmers' activities. Centres provide information based on

data generated from pre-validated crop cultivation practices adopted in the state and provided by the government

agricultural services and local institutions.

Keltron Information Kiosks is owned by the Kerala state government but operates as a separate company. Keltron

is developing information kiosks (telecentres) for public access to the internet to facilitate delivery of government

services using ICTs. The kiosks experiment with various ownership models (state and local government and

private) for telecentre sustainability. The kiosks function as independent profit centres and provide public Internet

access to approximately 50 people each day. There is trained staff to offer assistance and the cost is Rs.25 per

hour and daily revenue is approximately Rs. 1,400. In addition to serving the public, a series of government

information systems are being implemented for: agriculture support, covering crops and pests; census data, with

summaries and the official list of people below the poverty line; the electoral role; a grievance reporting and

tracking system with facilities for email to ministers; and industry information on a variety of licensing, regulatory,

and support schemes.

Thus, rural communities are going to unleash more productivity through the concerted efforts in improving the

connectivity and access to technology.

PANEL DISCUSSION

How can Governments best support the creation of self-sustaining rural connectivity initiatives that

benefit local people?

Mr Yogesh Kocchar

Director, Microsoft Corporation, India

Mr Yogesh Koccharstarted with the three pillars in IT revolution: Access; Afford ability and Application. These can

be termed as the 3 As of the IT revolution. In India, if we look at the school curriculum, there are several

challenges that need to be addressed. 90% of the content disseminated in schools is knowledge based while 90%

of the requirement in the market is skill based.


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Audience response from different countries was elicited:

Mr. Yaseen, elaborated on the Pakistan experience in ICTs. Pakistan has liberalized and has introduced several

initiatives. Teledensity in Pakistan is about 60%. Bringing ICTs to rural areas is a challenge although efforts are

being made to bring about greater connectivity. Optical fiber infrastructure has been provided. There are more

than 3000 broad band subscribers today.

Nepal: If the government does not act as a bottleneck, it should be provided with special economic zone for

development of IT Centres. Funds have been put for providing rural connectivity. 400 out of 4000 villages are still

devoid of connectivity.

Nigeria: Mobile subscribers have increased in Nigeria. A good regulatory authority is a must. Supply of computers

to educational instituted and polytechnics need to be taken up. Efforts are being made to ensure that no part of

Nigeria is more than 1 Km away from fiber optics. The internet and broad band penetration is overall low. Applied

knowledge can be used to further knowledge.

REGULATORY PANEL DISCUSSION

Using regulation as tool to increase rural broadband uptake: Enabling all providers to access regional

rural markets

Mr Lav Gupta

Principal Advisor, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Rural settings usually deposit low income base and poverty conditions. Overall, 72% people live in rural areas.

ICT's will help leapfrog development in these areas. Today the broad band subscribers have increased to 6.4

million. Internet subscribers are 13.6 million.

Broadband penetration in rural areas has to be increased. The potential and scope is immense.The rural retail

market is around 12 million. By 2012, 60% base will be in rural areas. Through the Regulatory Policy support has

been given to rural broadband initiatives. Subsidies are given to rural infrastructure. DoT has planned coverage in

all schools in collaboration with other ministries.

The HRD Ministry initiated the National Mission for education through ICT. The ministry of health has several plans

laid out for telemedicine. Globally, 410.9 million cable connections exist. About 14 million copper loops. 82 million

cable TV viewers.


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Sound regulatory environment is essential for conducive growth and development

Dr Muhammed Yaseen

Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority

Deregulation in Pakistan started in 1994. IT in Pakistan lays emphasis on several crucial factors including: Policy

which needs to be strong; Increased access; Infrastructural requirements; Increased awareness.

The scenario has been very encouraging for cellular mobile. Number of networks have increased. Awareness and

content have improved. The growth has been tremendous. Spectrum sharing and network sharing is important.

The government is trying to bring IT into all areas. PC penetration is around 10 million. However coordination

among different agencies in the telecom sector is lacking. Research and development is important for development

of quality content. Awareness in Pakistan for broadband opportunity is not great. Case studies need to be

advertised.

Mr Ananda Raj Khanal

Director and Secretary, Nepal Telecommunications

Nepal: A brief description of the country shows that topographically it is divided into three regions: the mountains,

hills and the plain region. About 83 percent of the country is rugged terrain and only 17 percent is flat land.

The economy of Nepal is dependent on agriculture and a majority of the people live in the rural areas. Despite the

fact that even after the about 5 decades of planned development effort, the country is still fighting against poverty.

As it is very difficult and costly to lay down the infrastructures due to rugged terrain, the importance of

telecommunications is of high value for Nepal. As the twenty-first century approaches, it is realised that economic,

social and cultural boundaries are disappearing.

The history of telecommunications in Nepal is rather very young as compared to the history and culture of

Nepalese people. Telecommunication was introduced with the installation of open wire trunk telephone line in

1915, beginning of the First World War. The first telephone exchange for the public was a 300 line C.B. manual

exchange installed in the capital in the year 1955.

The growth remained slow till the beginning of the 70s. In order to promote telecommunication development in

the country and keeping in view the technological development in the telecommunication field around the world,

Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) was established in 1975 in accordance with the Communications

Corporation Act 1972.


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Towards the Liberalisation of Telecom Sector in Nepal : HMG is committed to improving telecommunications

services and efficiency through increased competition and effective regulation of the telecommunication sector. It

is believed that in order to be able to commercialise and successfully meet the challenges of competition, it is

necessary for NTC to achieve full autonomy through privatisation.

As part of the fifth Telecommunications Project, a study on structural reform of the telecommunication sector was

carried out in 1994. It recommended privatisation, liberalisation and establishment of a regulatory body. HMG is

committed to a structural reform entailing a privatisation of Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) and the

introduction of private operators to compete with NTC. A policy Paper on the privatisation of Public Enterprises was

published in 1992.

The processes of liberalisation of telecommunications sector, regulation of the sector, commercialisation of NTC

and privatisation of NTC are inter-linked. Without competition, it would neither be urgent to change the regulatory

regime nor to commercialise and privatise NTC. However, with increased competition, the new regulatory regime

has become necessary and NTC must commercialise its activities to stay viable in the competitive market.

A new Telecommunications Act, 2053 (1997) has been enacted from 3rd November 1997 and a regulatory body,

Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has been constituted. The strategic choice to privatise NTC in order to

realise the vision of a vastly expanded and more equitable and efficient telecommunications network was

recommended by the sector reform study and justification provided herein.

Challenges and Opportunities

With liberalization the traditional operators have been adamant to the changes. These operators do not have the

experience of working in a competitive environment. If competition alone were taken for granted existence of the

traditional operators is a big challenge.

Likewise, the new entrants in the telecommunications sector not only come up with sound managerial capability

but also the resources to invest in new areas. Whereas the traditional operators with less expertise in management

have to work on the different set up with the same technology and resources. The survival of the traditional

operator seems to be threatened.

The new entrants might have some sort of psychological fear that they have to compete with the well-established

and well-equipped traditional operator. These entrants might be reluctant from entering into a new field. Thus on

the part of the new operator there is a fear of size, expertise, stability and market penetration originally held by

the traditional operators. Trade unions might vehemently resist the new entrants. There is always a fear on the


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part of the employees working with the traditional operators that they might lose their job. The possible reason for

resistance is that the traditional operator might retrench the employees when there is competition.

Communications is tied up with security as well. It is easy for the government to control the communications

network in a monopoly situation. When there are multi-operators with commercial orientation, it would be difficult

far the government to have a control on them.

However, inspite of the challenges, it must be seen that international telecommunications depends on countries

sharing their facilities with the rest of the world. To this end, standardisation of facilities and technologies

worldwide is essential.

Technological innovations are striking at a higher pace in telecommunications. Technologies found appropriate as

of today may be obsolete within say five years time. Developing countries can hardly afford necessary resources to

keep themselves updated with the ever-changing technologies. Globalisation and the multi-media revolution are

creating new service needs, as people increasingly demand the facilities to communicate freely anywhere, at any

time with anyone using a variety of media. A number of hurdles need to be surmounted before we adapt to a new

technology.

Our main challenge is how to access rural people to our national telecom network and how to satisfy the demandsin urban areas with cost-effective solutions.

Mr Robindra Mangtani

Director in Public Policy and Regulation, GSM Association

ICT readiness drives economic development. Broadband connectivity stimulates economic activity. Benefits of

broadband include

Need for Broadband

The Indian rural population is expected to change over the next two decades as shown in exhibit below.

Indian Rural Population 2001-2020

Population Statistics 1991 20012011

(Estimated)2021

(Estimated)

All India (Mn) 846 1027 1175 1331

15-59 population- AllIndia (Mn) NA 604 747 882


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Rural population (India) 75% 72% NA 60%Agriculturalemployment

67% 58% NA 45%

Rural unemployment5.6%

(93-94)7.2%

(99-00)NA NA

Source: Planning Commission, Center for Policy Research, Institute for Economic Growth

As envisaged in Vision 2020, the larger need to shift rural employment from traditional to alternate and agri-based

employment such as commercial agriculture (such as horticulture, floriculture, diary, livestock etc.), food

processing and forestry (including commercial forestry) will require significant amount of training, skilling and

support for traditional farmers to take up such new opportunities. Given the lack of infrastructure and funds/

budgets to set up the additional education/ training/ agricultural extensions etc, there is a need for innovative

solutions including alternate media/ communication channels that can enable a range of interactions and

interfaces including:

Education and information Vocational training and skills development Agricultural extension support especially in propagation of commercial agriculture

Micro-financing and technology transfer and entrepreneurship enhancement E-commerce and trade along the agriculture supply chain, leading to organised aggregation of supply and

demand

Improvement in quality of life indices in the rural areas to reduce the pressure to migrate, includingimprovements in health services, governance etc.

In this regard, broadband can provide the most comprehensive set of capabilities to address all these needs at a

rural level.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

International progress on delivering the promise of the Universal Service Fund

Assessing impact of the schemes thus far; what has been achieved? Identifying the main areas to receive funding in 2009: Where will the remaining strategic funding be

concentrated for South Asia?

How can community groups, businesses and public sector organizations work in partnership to driveconnectivity?


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Ms Payal Malik

Senior Research Fellow LIRNEasia, Associate Professor, University of Delhi

Role of competition and regulation has been tremendous. There has been an increase in Teledensity from 3% in

2000 to 37% in 2009. The mobile subscriber base is around 430 million. Phones have overtaken radios as the

primary communication tool. Universal service obligation includes increased empirical evidence.

TRAI has recommendatory powers. 11,250 towers are required to meet the needs of 500 million phones in 2010.

Some of TRAIs recommendations to solve the problem include:

Cap on sharing to be removed; Provide support to back haul between BTS and BSC The prime concern is of wasteful duplication. Commissioning status of towers is also important. Getting rid of unused funds

Mr Ajai Bhattacharya

USO Fund Administrator, India

Encompassing everything to spread telecommnications across all areas is essential. Challenges include huge size,

varied infrastructure and topography; issues of afford ability and accessibility.

Supportive policy environment, improving telecom infrastructure and growth in rural telephony are the key

challenges for the telecom industry which needs to be addressed.

Identifying successful and transferable lessons for connecting rural areas: Practical insights from

national operators

Understanding how convergence can enable connectivity Financial solutions tailored to rural challenges Building broader partnerships

Mr Anil Prakash

President, Telecommunication Users Group of India

Policy and regulation should cater to new technology and access State governments need to be sensitised on the perspective of the whole nation


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Broadband penetration: BSNL has several optics. There has to be some kind of inbuilt law for broad band connectivity.

Dr S S Mantha

Vice Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education

The education system is huge in India. We have a fairly good system. Problem is to find good faculty. A huge

potential exists in ICT. Mobile technology needs to be taken further. Teacher training in ICT's needs to be taken up

in a big way so that they do not lag behind in the new innovative developments.

Dr Ravi Gupta

Editor-in-Chief, eGov Magazine

Content is a key factor in telecom. Various European countries looked at schools as a very important aspect for

broadband connectivity. Building of demand for connectivity is important. The internet service providers have been

making captive markets. In India, major points of presence in the rural communiies include: schools, hospitals,

colleges and panchayats. Therefore, promotion of connectivity of these institutions can be ushered in to bring

connectivity. Content and users hold the key.

Policy and regulations are important aspects for connectivity in rural areas. There is a national policy governing the

utility, however there is a need to provide some kind of a mechanism for efficient implementation. Broadband

connectivity policy needs to be put in place. One way in which connectivity has been expanded is the broadband

enabled kiosks from BSNL. An assisted access needs to be provided.

In case of a choice between accessibility and affordability, accessibility can be seen as the priority area. In rural

areas in India, we find examples of people who are willing to pay for telecom services, however though, the

current problem is that they are not available in the region. The cost of not having access is higher than the cost of

the services being provided at a higher price. Focus needs to be on accessibility while affordability issues, although

crucial, can eventually be addressed.


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Assessment of M-Content requirements in India and Uganda

Mr Kojo Boakye

Manager Programmes, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation

Today, policy makers, mobile operators, donors and users see the mobile phone as more than a tool for talking.

This can partly be attributed to the growing popularity of Value Added Services (VAS) delivered through mobile

phones. VAS have become a key way for operators to develop new revenue streams, differentiate themselves from

competitors, attract new customers and retain existing ones. Strong growth in the use of VAS, such as ringtones,games and wall papers, has seen it contribute between 5 and 10 percent of operators revenues and many are

aiming for 100 percent growth during 2008. This trend has coincided with a growing number of initiatives that

have used mobiles to provide content that has positively impacted on socio-economic development outcomes. As a

result, many stakeholders are now focused on the development of m-content.

Stakeholders in the Indian and Ugandan m-content sectors are working towards increasing the range and quality

of available m-content in order to meet users requirements. From the analysis of survey r esults from 602 end-

users in Uganda and 909 in India, as well as consultations with key stakeholders from government, regulatory

authorities, mobile operators, content producers and civil society, conclusions can be drawn that the future of m-

content in both countries is bright.

When asked about their intention to use m-content services in general, end-users were overwhelmingly positive,

with 96 percent of respondents in both countries expressing a positive intention to use services. However, this

positive intention will only feed into the development of m-content if there are services that meet users

requirements. There are few m-content services that could effectively contribute to meeting the most important

information requirements concerning users livelihoods. These relate to reducing vulnerability by being able to

contact people in emergencies and increasing human capital through education and training. This is not surprising

since much of the m-content available in both countries is entertainment-based.

Despite the lack of socially orientated content, most users are aware of the various forms of m-content that are

available and do use them to different degrees. In India the most commonly used types of content are games,

downloaded ringtones and music. In Uganda the situation is different with airtime transfer ranking number one,

followed by games, news and sports. Interestingly, users from each country show a great deal of satisfaction with

the services they use most and believe they represent good value for money.


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Evidence of user satisfaction is important for those intent on the development of m-content in both countries as it

suggests that users will continue using the services. However, it is only one piece of the jigsaw. It is imperative

that content producers and operators push the envelope and develop new services in order to increase demand.

There is little consistency in the innovative services that respondents from India and Uganda intend to use in the

future. In India the top ranked service was listening and downloading music, with obtaining exam results at

number two. In Uganda, an advice line on healthcare and health products was ranked number one while services

that enable people to find jobs was second. Watching television was the only m-content service that appeared in

both countries top five lists of services. The report also suggests that Internet over mobile, remittances and m -

banking may be highly demanded in future.

Currently, most content is demanded and delivered through SMS. However, key stakeholders suggest that the

future will be characterised by a change in the way content is demanded and delivered. The increased use of

technologies such as interactive voice recognition (IVR), which will remove barriers to m-content use such as

illiteracy, as well as 3G and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which will give users a more

interactive experience, will prove to be significant.

Despite the positive future for m-content development in India and Uganda, there is a note of caution. Users in

both countries identify the lack of m-content in their local languages as the main barrier to using services. In turn,

key stakeholders highlight numerous obstacles. Examples of policy and regulatory regimes that neglect m-content,

poor collaboration between stakeholders, limited ownership of higher specification mobiles, as well as the

continued and unwarranted focus on entertainment-based content, are arguably the biggest obstacles.

Although overcoming the obstacles appears to be a daunting task, there is cause to be positive because there are

a number of opportunities to increase the required types of m-content. Indeed, scope for increased collaboration,

the falling price of entry-level handsets and strong examples of best practice from other countries are all

encouraging factors which will aid in meeting users current and future m-content requirements in both countries.

Meeting of infrastructural challenges are important. There are different challenges for different areas. Growth in

rural connectivity is important. Rural connectivity and growth of telecom connectivity has direct relationship on

GDP growth. The financial services have to be service providers.


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Benefits of ICT to disadvantaged communities Share ideas within communities Share societal problems

Thus, Telecentres have evolved into a powerful, diverse and flexible tool for people who want to improve their lives

and strengthen their communities. Some of the views expressed on telecentre success and sustainability well

exemplify their potential. According to Francisco Proenza, The establishment of telecentres led by local, well

managed not-for-profit organizations, in partnership with a variety of public agencies, businesses and other civil

society organizations, appear to be the most promising way forward, both from a development perspective and toachieve long term sustainability.

Sri Lankan experience has been that the telecentre owner is the key. Depending on his/her enthusiasm,

entrepreneurship and community involvement, any telecentre model may it operate as a business, in a temple,

youth group, womens group, it will be a success.

Can micro-payments and expert guidance be best used for community-led connectivity projects?

Mr Dipak BasuFounder Director, ANUDIP Foundation for Social Welfare

Connecting Rural Communities is a major priority as it brings together access and development. Access to

information alone will not drive broad-based adoption of IT solutions. Skills development and capacity building are

critical to popularize IT in rural communities

Information Technology can provide enhanced livelihoods to rural communities of India

The Mission of Anudip is to bring Indias IT-based prosperity to rural and semi-urban areas through a large pool of

trained workers and entrepreneurs

Anudip Foundation provides comprehensive computer and entrepreneurship training at its growing number of

LINKAGE Centers

Selected trainees are provided basic business and entrepreneurship skills training Students are offered product-specific and region-specific training and certification Students have access to hands-on computer applications Graduating students are offered micro-loans to incubate their businesses


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Alumni are continuously monitored and mentored in regard to entrepreneurial and employmentopportunities

Alumni are provided with subsidized computing and Internet facilities in the incubation stage Anudip MERIT Centers are being set up strategically to draw upon the services of graduates of LINKAGE

Centers

SUMMARY OF DAY 2 - 24 June 2009


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The proceedings of the day elicited a wide range of discussions on the subject. The case studies highlighted, issues

faced and the solutions offered threw up a lot of ideas in theminds of the stakeholders who were present in the

conference from across Asia and Africa. Since the nations of the global south have similar infrastructure challenges

and socio-economic conditions, this day was apt for them to share knowledge within themselves and to learn from

the experiences of eachother about how to go about with the work that they are doing at both the ground and the

policy level. All the stakeholders (government, private entities and NGOs) took home a wealth of knowledge that is

sure to benefit the rural populace in both the continents.

Some of the main discussion points are summarised below: Societal Connectivity created by the CSC programme is expected to generate over 400,000 new

employment opportunities in rural India

A quantum of information that people require can be provided through mobile phones, and this systemdoes not have the kind of constraints that the setting up of a typical CSC can have, namely, requirement

of adequate space, infrastructure, and bandwidth constraints that can incapacitate telecentres.

A digital network that is versatile, redundant and scalable and supports voice, video and data transmissionand capable of using both VSATs and wireless connectivity is core to providing quality services to the

remote and rural regions of Asia.

Delivery of high-speed Internet through GSM technology is the best way of extending the benefits of ICTsto the entire rural populace of Asia. India has already taken a lead in mobile technology with the mobile

phones becoming not only acceptable but being the first preference for telecommunication across various

demographies.

There are 1 billion people in the emerging markets who do not have a bank account but do have a mobilephone and these are the kind of people who will be directly benefitted by programmes like Mobile Money

for the Unbanked.

Policy makers in many countries have found immediate benefit by taking measures that accelerated thegrowth of mobile broadband in their country and that should act as a catalyst for early adoption of an

enabling policy framework in countries that have areas yet untouched by mobile broadband technology.

At a time when the healthcare systems are under a lot of pressure, mobile communications can improveand assist the current healthcare systems especially when we have more that 3 billion people who own

mobile phones.

In order to catalyze economic growth the country needs good governance, e-health, e-education, and e-commerce/m-commerce. Modern telecommunications technologies can provide all these services and at

the same time open up new vistas for employment in rural India.


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m-Governance being at a nascent stage, there are quite a few challenges that will need to be overcome,but India with its more than 400 million users and a large IT workforce can take a global lead in this

domain.

Presentations were made by:

Mr Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of India Mr Sabahat Azim, Chief Executive Officer, Srei Sahaj e-Village Ltd. Dr Mahesh Uppal, Director, ComFirst (India) Private Ltd.

Mr Robindhra Mangtani, Director, GSMA Mr Kushe Bahl, Partner, McKinsey and Company Mr T R Dua, Deputy Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India Mr Arif Khan, Director Regulatory Affairs India and Sri Lanka, Ericsson Mrs Monika Bylhn, Senior Analyst, Ericsson Dr K Ganapathy, President, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation Mr Anil Prakash, President, Telecommunications Users Group of India Mr T V Partha Saradhi, Director (Communications), Department of Information Technology and

Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India

Mr Vikas Kanungo, Chairman, The Society for Promotion of e-Governance Mr Adrian Horrell, Business Development Director: Utilities, 4RF Communications Mr H C Soni, Vice-President, ITU-APT Foundation of India

The proceedings of the second day are summarized below.

PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

What are we working towards Realising the benefits of greater rural connectivity through the

delivery of e-Services

The first session of the day was focussed on the way forward to bring the rural Asians into the fold of the digital

revolution. The very aptly titled session brought about an understanding of how rural connectivity can usher in a

more democratic development where the rural masses are also able to be part of the growh that globalisation and

IT has brought for their urban counterparts.

100,000 Common Services Centre in Rural India: A Unique Service Delivery Platform for G2C and B2C

Services


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Employment Social Welfare Utility Services Business Panchayat Counsumer Welfare Environment Conservation Tourism and Transport (assistance in booking train tickets etc.)

Entertainment Services

With a bouquet of over 15 categories of services and over 100 services, the programme supports multi-service-

delivery, a mix of all government and private services needed by the local community including

Mr Sanyal moved on to inform the audience about the infrastructure of a typical CSC wherein the total estimated

cost of setting up each CSC is between USD 2700 3000 (excluding land and building). Following are the

examples of tie-ups the CSCs have with private/state-owned entities to offer services to the rural community:

Banking: State Bank of India, ICICI, HDFC, Union Bank of India etc. Agriculture: Subhiksha, Reliance, Deepak Fertilisers, Media Lab Asia, ITC Education: Hughes Direcway, IGNOU, IL&FS-ETS, etc. Health: Apollo, Aravind Hospitals, Nicholas Piramal, etc. Bill Payments: Suvidhaa Info services, ITZ Cash, etc. Retail Sales: Motorola, Nokia, Hero Honda, etc. Advertising: Group M, Lintas Media, etc. Telecom: Airtel, Reliance, Tata Indicom, etc. eCommerce: Google, eBay, etc. Financial Services: HDFC General Insurance, ICICI Lombard, etc. Public Sector: NABARD, IRCTC, KVIC, BSNL, etc.

Mr Ashis Sanyal's presentation gave a clear picture of the overall status of the Indian Government's CSC

Programme and despite the visible challenges that are being faced it is heartening to know that the Nation is very

close to achieving the huge target that it had set for itself.

Particularly interesting was the fact that instead of only talking about the technical and infrastructural issues

pertaining to this roll-out, he showed the human development aspect and the impact on societal connectivity of

this programme.


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Expected Impact on Societal Connectivity

Over 400,000 new employment opportunities in rural India Timely delivery of critical Information and Services Structured system to manage issues of health, education, etc. Cost-effective access to Government Services Higher administrative efficiency and reduced red tape Closer links between Government and Citizens

These are compelling reasons for all stakeholders to achieve rural connectivity and bridge the rural-urban digital

divide and usher in an information revolution among the inhabitants of the remote rural areas in Asia, something

that has been started in India and needs to be spread around the globe.

Using Mobile technologies to take CSCs to the Indian Citizen

Dr Mahesh Uppal

Director, ComFirst (India) Private Ltd

Dr Uppal narrated a few cases of how rural Indian citizens have devised innovative usage of mobile phones. He

gave an account of how people have started using a mobile phone's 'missed call' notification as a mode of

communication which conveys simple information and does not entail any additional expenditure on the parties

communication with each other. Dr Uppal considers the CSCs/telecentres, the last locality instrument for

information sharing, a landline phone as a last place device and the mobile phone as the last person device for

information sharing and that is exactly why he proposes that the available mobile technologies should be aligned

with the CSCs to take the benefits of the information revolution to every citizen of the country. He feels that a

quantum of information that people require can be provided through mobile phones, and this system does not

have the kind of constraints that the setting up of a typical CSC can have, namely, requirement of adequate

space, infrastructure, and bandwidth constraints that can incapacitate telecentres. Services that require devices

and bandwidth, etc., that mobile phones cannot cope with (such as telemedicine, printing photos, etc.) should

remain with CSCs. Considering that most of the services that are being provided through CSCs are data services,

Dr Uppal feels that their migration to mobile phones will require connectivity solutions that can support faster

speeds of data transfer, like 3G networks. In conclusion, he urged that the CSC Programme should ensure that it

does not become the victim of its own success. CSCs are being set up in Public Private Partnership mode and the

problem with this approach is, when the entire system grows and the private services bring in more revenue thanthe e-Governance services, will the partners (Service Centre Agencies, Village Level Entrepreneurs, etc.,) still give


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equal priority to generating awareness and disbursal of e-Governance services which may bring them less revenues

as compared to the B2C services that are on the offer. In response to this, Mr Ashis Sanyal said that the G2C

services being offered by CSCs will bring in footfalls for their credibility while the B2C services will bring footfalls for

revenue, so both of them will co-exist side-by-side and will complement each other.

This thought-provoking presentation elicited an animated discussion about how mobile phones can help bridge the

digital divide and further contribute to development at the grassroots level across the developing and under-

developed regions of the globe.

Providing access to 287 million Indian population: Ground level perspective

Dr Sabahat Azim

Chief Executive Officer, Srei Sahaj e-Village Ltd

Srei Sahaj e-Village Ltd., being an SCA of the Indian Government's CSCs Programme operating in 7 states (Assam,

Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) covering 102 districts, Dr Sabahat

Azim's presentation was about the strategies they have adopted to create the largest access network by the year

2012 and reach 500 million people. Realising this vision will entail the creation of a robust infrastructure A digital

network that is versatile, redundant and scalable and supports voice, video and data transmission and capable of

using both VSATs and wireless connectivity. A physical and financial network in the form of a payment gateway

and supply chain (rural business hubs) are also required to be set up. None of these initiatives will succeed without

a human network where entrepreneurs and the villagers drive the business. Informing about the operations of Srei

Sahaj, Dr Azim said that the organisation aims to set up 27,253 CSCs through a franchisee model (11,317 CSCs

have been rolled out and 9,500 are operational) primarily in rural areas covering 7 states. The outlets are slated to

be the primary providers of products and services to 287 million people and are backed by Level 3 Data Centres

and processing backends and will soon be backed by physical supply chain. Talking about the challenges that were

faced while setting up the network infrastructure for their CSCs, Dr Azim said that Srei Sahaj is using VSAT for data

transmission after exploring the feasibility of employing other wireless networks for data transmission. The

organisation tested Wi-Fi (802.11G G), GPRS, WLL, CDMA 1x, and also tried out the services of the government

operators but none of them could provide satisfactory service.

Being dissatisfied with the quality of service currently being provided by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Dr

Azim proposes that the Government should provide free Internet service throughout the nation which will in the

long run, force the ISPs to strive to offer quality, high-speed Internet to their customers in order to get revenues.


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Session Summary

The first session of this day charted out the next steps that are to be taken to spread high-speed wireless Internet

to the underserved areas around Asia. Mr Sanyal, representing the Indian Government's CSCs programme which is

the largest network of its kind in the world informed the participants about how the Government is tackling with

the connectivity challenges being faced while rolling out the centres and in their day-to-day operations. The private

players also informed about the innovative ways that hey overcame the connectivity issues and offered suggestions

about how the Government's intervention in this matter can make this movement run smoothly.

GSMA Workshop

Connecting Rural Asia to the Internet with Mobile Broadband

The second session of day two was organised in collaboration with the GSM Association which is a global trade

group for the mobile industry representing 750 mobile operators and 200 associate members spread across 218

countries. The Association's mandate is to innovate, incubate and deliver new opportunities for its members that

drive the growth of the mobile industry. The session focussed on connecting rural Asia to the Internet with mobile

broadband - which, with 4 billion mobile connections around the world (as compared to only 1.1 billion fixed

broadband connections), is the best way to take high-speed Internet to all parts of the world.

Connecting the World

Mr Robindhra Mangtani

Director, GSM Association

Mr Mangtani's presentation was about how delivery of high-speed Internet through GSM technology is the best

way of extending the benefits of ICTs to the entire rural populace of Asia. India has already taken a lead in mobile

technology with the mobile phones becoming not only acceptable but being the first preference for

telecommunication throughout various demographies. The number of mobile phone connections have far exceeded

the number of landline phone connections in the country and it's growth still doesn't show any signs of plateauing.

Broadband penetration in India is currently at about 4.7% while mobile networks are already covering most of the

landmass it is mobile broadband that can emerge as the connectivity solution of choice. Giving examples of how

HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) networks can impact the rural economy, Mr Mangtani informed the participants

of how mobile broadband stimulated the Australian rural economy which has the world's first 21 Mbps network.98% of the Australian population is covered by a mobile broadband network with a 64% user growth clocked in a


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span of 2 years, this wide coverage and acceptability has enabled the creation of community applications for

health, education and governance services. Deploying similar systems in rural Asia can possibly revolutionalise the

information delivery systems and bring individuals closer to the ICT and have access to services that are currently

being provided through telecentres. He further talked about the developments in the various network standards for

wireless high-speed Internet access through portable devices like mobile phones like HSPA Evolution (supporting

download speeds between 28-42 Mbps), LTE (supports download at upto 173 Mbps) and LTE-Advanced (download

speed of upto 1 Gbps), technologies that can further revolutionise rural connectivity. Higher data communication

technologies enable the implementation of services like Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU), supported by the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which will harness the ubiquity of mobile phones to provide financial services topeople who were previously unbanked. The programme focusses on 20 projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America

and the target of the programme is to reach 20 million preciously unbanked people by 2012. Mr Mangtani pointed

out that there are 1 billion people in the emerging markets who do not have a bank account but do have a mobile

phone and these are the kind of people who will be directly benefitted by this programme.

Accelerating Mobile Broadband

Mr Kushe Bahl

Partner, McKinsey and CompanyMr Kushe Bahl's presentation was based on the premise that broadband access is an important driver for a

country's economic and social development and bringing mobile broadband penetration in emerging and

developing economies to today's level in the developed world would potentially create an additional GDP of about

USD 300-420 billion and over 10 million jobs. But since adoption of mobile broadbands on a large scale and in rural

and poorer areas heavily depends on the regulatory environment prevalent in a country, he suggested that policy

makers can support mobile broadband by licensing lower-band spectrum (e.g., 700 MHz, which reduces the cost of

base stations), promote facility sharing and focus on roll-out rather than receipts from licenses. He pointed out thatpolicy makers in other countries have found immediate benefit from measures and that should act as a catalyst for

early adoption of an enabling policy framework in countries that have areas yet untouched by mobile broadband

technology.

Such regulatory drivers can lead to upto a 75% reduction on the cost to serve, especially in the rural and poorer

areas, benefits which can get transferred to the end user and enable him to use the services at an affordable price

point. Similarly, reduction in License fees in return for roll-out commitments can bring about worldwide coverage

and services as was the case in Japan where 3G licenses were awarded to major players at no cost.


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Mr Bahl's presentation was replete with examples of how well these enabling policies have helped achieve the

objectives that they were rolled out for. Case studies from South Africa, Brazil, Australia and Malaysia, were

portrayed to show how beneficial changes in the respective governments' policies fueled growth in the sector and

also benefitted the people in these respective countries. Similar initiatives, if taken by other countries will,

undoubtedly, result in the overall growth of the under-served who, by virtue of high-speed connectivity can have

access to e-governance and other services at their doorsteps.

Emerging Scenario: Mobile Broadband

Mr T R Dua

Deputy Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)

Mr Dua's presentation on the 'Emerging Scenario: Mobile Broadband' was aimed at familiarising the participants

with the procedures involved in the roll-out of mobile broadband service in India as also its current status. The

COAI was constituted in 1995 and dedicated to the advancement of modern communication through cellular

mobile telephone services. With a vision to establish and sustain a world-class cellular infrastructure and facilitate

affordable mobile communication services in India, COAI's main objectives are to protect the common and

collective interests of its members.

Mr Dua started his presentation by quoting the ITU's (International Telecommunications Union) findings that. The

mobile phone has moved beyond being a mere device to become a key social object present in every aspect of our

daily lives. In India too, the mobile phone has been accepted as an integral part of everyday life which is visible

from the fact that this sector is growing at more than 13 million subscribers per month and attracting investments

of over 15,000 crores. Mr Dua shared the findings of a study conducted by the Indian Council for Research on

International Economic Relations on the impact of mobile phones in India, which concluded that:

Telecommunications is a critical building block for the country's economic development Access to communication needs to be seen as a foundation on which other initiatives can be built up on In underserved areas, mobile phones can help to widen markets, create better information flows, lower

transaction costs and substitute for costly physical transport

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and urban slums gain maximum benefits in enhancing theirbusinesses through the use of mobile services

information via mobile phones, such as weather reports and market prices, has begun to have an impacton productivity for the agricultural sector


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Real benefits of telecommunications only start when a region passes a threshold penetration rate of about25%. Many areas have still not attained that level, which indicates the importance of increasing teledensity

as soon as possible.

Indian states with higher mobile penetration can be expected to grow faster, and by 1.2% points for every10% increase in mobile penetration rate.

The benefits stated above are from 2G mobile networks, with the advent of 3G networks they are expected to

grow manifold.

After talking about the benefits of 3G mobile networks, Mr Dua focussed on the policy and the implementation

aspects of the 3G in India. Informing the audience about the more specific benefits of a mobile broadband network

in rural India he said that since fixed line broadband connectivity in rural India is very low, many will probably

experience broadband first on mobile handsets because 3G will bring in the much needed high speed connectivity

in rural India. The key factors for mobile broadband in rural India are the wide spread of mobile phones in India

which has been possible through its affordability especially when compared to computers. Mobile broadband will be

beneficial in spreading many of the much needed services in rural areas of the country, like, Telemedicine,

Education and e-Governance.

Sharing the COAI's views about the ways of making 3G a success in rural India, Mr. Dua said:

There is a need to subsidise power supply in rural areas which can be done through special support fromthe Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for power supply to Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and

Base Station Controllers (BSC), special subsidies for use of non-conventional energy sources and subsidy

for diesel used for running sites in rural areas,

Reduction in annual spectrum charges for rollout of infrastructure in rural/remote areas and allotment ofspectrum in the 700 MHz band will allow more operators to provide connectivity in rural areas.

Nominal and transparent Right of Way (RoW) charges; and Reduction of the burden of levies in the sector.

Connecting India

Mr Arif Khan

Director Regulatory Affairs, India and Sri Lanka, Ericsson


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Being a global player in the field of telecom, Ericsson's representative, Mr Arif Khan put forth the company's

experiences in the South Asian region with instances of some projects in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India that have

benefitted with high speed mobile broadband access.

Mr Khan started his presentation by pointing out that there is a latent demand for broadband connectivity in India

due to the limited ability of fixed networks in facilitating mass market access to broadband connectivity. Keeping in

mind the facts that - (a) the Government targets to have 20 million broadband subscribers in the country by the

end of 2010, (b) Internet users in India spend as much on Internet access as mobile users do on mobile

communications, and; (c) the ratio of Internet users to fixed broadband subscribers in India is 14:1 - it is clear tosee that there is a huge potential for growth of broadband (fixed and wireless) in India.

Talking about initiatives taken in South Asia for providing access to wireless broadband services in rural areas, he

started by presenting a case study of Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka which provided HSPA access to the bottom of the

pyramid in rural Sri Lanka. With 1,20,000 3G subscribers and 30,000 HSPA users by the end of 2008 (HSPA service

launched in 2007), Dialog Telekom showed that broadband is commercially viable even among the poorest and it

leverages the knowledge of the low-ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) prepaid voice market provided the service

provider utilises innovative business strategies such as allowing shared access (0.55 USD/hour broadband access

at 55 rural Internet cafes) and by offering individual access with a flat fee and bucket pricing structure.

Next, he talked about Ericsson's Gramjyoti (Light of the Village) which was a rural broadband project initiated in

September 2007 which showcased the benefits of mobile broadband for rural India. The project covered thousands

of people (including 3,000 children) residing within the project area spread across 18 villages and 15 towns.

Ericsson worked in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, Hand in Hand (a local NGO), Edurite, One97, CNN and

Cartoon Network to deliver a range of services including telemedicine, e-education and e-governance.

He feels that the way forward for India is to constructively resolve the issues pertaining to the spectrum allocation

keeping in mind the fact that the demand for the service is slated to increase. He also feels that the right license

fee structure and power liberalization can help the Government reach its target.

Session Summary

This session dealt with the technological aspect of rural connectivity and informed the participants about the

standards of wireless broadband. Apart from this, most of the discussion was about how the national governments

of the global south ought to make changes in their licensing and regulatory policies to facilitate the rapid


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deployment of nationwide mobile broadband networks which will strengthen the existing ICT applications and

enable the development of new and more specialised applications that will benefit the rural populace of the global

south.

Ensuring Rural Communities can make the most of the digital transformation

This session primarily discussed the possibilities that a wireless broadband connectivity can offer for the inhabitants

of remote/rural areas around the globe. Case studies were highlighted by organisations working in the field and

they ranged from ICT applications in the domain of health care and education as also the connectivity issues and

their possible solutions.

PRESENTATIONS and DISCUSSIONS

Improve your life mobile healthcare in developing countries

Mrs Monika Bylhn

Senior Analyst, Ericsson

Mrs Bylhn's presentation titled, 'Improve your life mobile healthcare in developing countries' focused on the

following three aspects of healthcare delivery through mobile technologies:

How mobile communications enables access to healthcare How mobile communications improves delivery of healthcare, and; How M-health benefits individuals, institutions and society

Mrs Bylhn defines m-health as a term of treatment and prevention health practice supported by mobile

communications. At a time when the healthcare systems are under a lot of pressure, it is best that mobile

communications are given a leverage to improve and assist the current healthcare systems especially when we

have more that 3 billion people who own mobile phones. M-health applications have been deployed in a variety of

uses such as data collection (birth and death registration in Rwanda) as also for emergency medical services (toll-

free emergency number in Rwanda). Mobile communications and technologies have been deployed for conducting

medical examinations like Telepathology and ultrasound via mobile phones in remote areas around the world and

are functioning successfully. Similarly, m-Learning applications for providing healthcare training to health workers

and teleconsultation between health workers in the field and the primary, secondary and tertiary care facilities as


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Logistics of reimbursement, liability issues, follow up Implementing a universally acceptable system in culturally diverse areas with different levels of technical

competency, social, economic and scientific development and different languages, is the ultimatechallenge

He informed the audience about the Gramjyoti project where Apollo Hospitals partnered with Ericsson to provide

healthcare services to people residing in the project area. He informed that similar mHealth projects are on in

Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Community Services by e-nabled Centers

Mr Anil Prakash

President, Telecom Users Group of India

Mr Anil Prakash talked about empowering the bottom of the pyramid. He said that in order to catalyze economic

growth the country needs good governance, e-health, e-education, and e-commerce/m-commerce. Modern

telecommunications technologies can provide all these services and at the same time open up new vistas for

employment in rural India. The can bring in new avenues for entrepreneurship like, banking services can beextended to the hitherto unbanked masses, recharge coupons for prepaid phone connections can be sold at

villages, etc.

He feels that telecom is the backbone of society and it should be recognised as an important part of national

infrastructure. In order to promote growth in the sector, a national policy on broadband should be created that

enables the opening up of the proverbial last mile and giving the Right of Way to telecom service providers.

E-learning A paradigm shift in rural education

Mr T V Partha Saradhi

Director (Communications), Department of Information Technology and Communications

Government of Andhra Pradesh, India

Mr Partha Saradhi defined e-learning as, 'The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic

means. E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to

provide training, educational or learning material.' He acknowledged that distance education provided the base for

the development of e-learning which can be 'on-demand' and overcomes the issues of timing, attendance andtravelling. He was of the opinion that traditional classrooms have to be transformed since the large range of ICT


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tools that are available for teaching and learning offer the opportunities to raise educational standards. The

advantages the e-learnign offers are:

Saves Time Saves Money Flexible Learning Styles Guaranteed Consistency Risk-free Environment Diverse Expansive Curriculum

Benefit of good teachers /content to Rural areas

He talked about the Government's APNET (Andhra Pradesh Network) Project which is a fusion of latest

technologies that enable a host of services like:

Distance Education Telemedicine Agricultural Extension e-Governance Awareness Building among self-help groups Agricultural Marketing Human Resources Development Community Internet Infrastructure

The APNET project employs the following technologies to deliver the above services to rural locations:

TDM / TDMA Data Network, Video DVB / MPEG-2 Broadcasting, IP over DVB, Voice over IP (VoIP), Video Conferencing and Tele-Medicine

All of the following institutions are covered under this project:

Degree Colleges Engineering Colleges Junior Colleges Residential Schools


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Polytechnics Dr.BR Ambedkar Open University Centres Human Resource Development (HRD) Training Centres

APNET is currently telecasting 5 channels:

CH-1: Pre-recorded programs for Intermediate Colleges Polytechnic and Engineering

CH-2: Live/interactive programs for schools, Intermediate, Colleges, Polytechnic, Medical, Police, Agricultural,

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Andhra Pradesh Open Schools.

CH-3: Pre-recorded programs for Human Resource Development, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Agricultural and AndhraPradesh Academy of Rural Development (APARD) departments

CH-4: Pre-recorded programs for schools (Society for Andhra Pradesh Network and APARD programmes)

CH-5: Exclusively for Jawahar Knowledge Centres

Inclusive Development through Converged Public Services - Role of new media and web2.0

Technologies

Mr Vikas Kanungo

Chairman, The Society for Promotion of e-Governance, India

Mr Vikas Kanungo suggested that with the advent of wireless broadband, it is possible to combine its strengths

with the Web2.0 technologies and use them for providing public services to each and every household in the

nation, irrespective of their geographic location. With 3/4th of the Indian population having access to mobile

devices, the initiation of m-Governance services can bring the government a lot closer to its citizens, the success

of the mobile payment models (m-banking and microfinance) are evidences that the idea is acceptable to most of

the people and gives credible evidence of its success. With the advent of 3G, mobile devices a re slated to bt the

primary access device for the Internet by 2020 and combined with the 24/7 availability of location-based e-

Governance services, it is the best way forward to make governance more participatory.

The Possible m-Government Application areas can be:

Arrangement of appointments between citizens and civic authorities (General applicability to wide servicerange)

Notifications by civic authorities General access, submissions of service requests, complaints etc. by the citizens


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Payment of utility bills Support to government healthcare and education information campaigns Broadcasting of critical information regarding traffic condition and other events. Notifications/alerts for payment of taxes etc.

m-Governance being at a nascent stage, there are quite a few challenges that will need to be overcome, but India

with its more than 400 million users and a large IT workforce can take a global lead in this domain. Mr Kanungo

pointed out some of the challenges that need to be tackled.

The potential is not fully understood/expl

connecting rural communities asia 2009

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