[GKD] Making Access Affordable (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

INTERNET FOR ALL: INDIAN VILLAGERS TO GET ACCESS AT PRICES THEY CAN AFFORD

By Frederick Noronha
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

India's hundreds of millions of rural dwellers are given a cold-shoulder
by businessmen, and lack the access to goods, services and information
they so badly require. From Chennai in Southern India comes a unique
technological solution -- a Internet kiosk that will sell for just Rs
40,000 (around US$830) and could link up hundreds of thousands of
villages.

What's best is that no subsidies or handouts are involved in this
ambitious project. It will be run on business lines, and early
field-implementations are already showing this to be both scaleable and
practical for implementation across rural India.

To every man (and woman) a Net connection. And a phoneline to everyone
wanting it. These goals are what electrical engineering prof Dr Ashok
Jhunjhunwala dreams about consistently. They're not just dreams; he's
also getting there, as recent experience shows.

Could this professor and head of the Indian Institute of Technology's
electrical engineering department in Chennai, do to the Internet what
Satyen 'Sam' Pitroda did to Indian telephones in the 1980s? Vastly open
up access, to make it a tool for the commonman?

US-based Indian expat Pitroda was a keen observer of the
telecommunication problems in the Third World. Telecom technology came
from the West, and didn't suit the dusty, humid and unreliable
electrical connections in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was
convinced that India must develop an indigenous telecommunications
industry. In 1981, he launched plans to set up India's Centre for the
Development of Telematics (C-DoT). Not only did this design indigenous
telecom switching systems, to make rural exchanges that could work under
tougher conditions, but equipped ordinary telephones with small meters.
This equipment was sold to local entrepreneurs, who set up manned public
call offices (PCOs) on makeshift tables in bazaars, at streetcorners, or
in shops. They did work! By the year 2000, some 650,000 of these PCOs
were set up across India, instantly making a world of a difference to
the potential of the average Indian to access a telephone. (See 'India's
Communication Revolution - From Bullock Carts to Cyber Marts', Singhal
and Rogers, 2001, p194-198).

But India, with its 1000+ million population, still badly needs some 200
million more Internet and telephone connections. This is essential if
the commonman is to get access to the wonders of new information and
communication technologies, and if his productive potential is to be
developed better, instead of getting wasted.

But at current costs of the technology, India simply can't reach
anywhere near that figure. So, how does one go about making the Internet
and telephones simply a little more affordable? Ask Prof
Jhunjhunwala

His arguments are simple. "We've learnt important lessons from the whole
experiment of expanding STD (subscriber trunk-dialling) access within
India. What has made a world of a difference was the policy of sharing
revenue with the small operator. Instead of one per cent of the Indian
population today getting access to STD phones, now nearly 30% of the
population has it," he adds.

Sitting in his unostentatious and spartan office, Prof Jhunjhunwala says
India also has lessons to learn from the growth of cable-TV in the
country. Today, millions of Indians across the country get low-cost
access to cable-TV, provided through local networks run mostly by the
unorganised sector. At a very affordable rate of about Rs 100 per month,
a family gets connected to three dozen or more cable channels.

This affordable package evolved simply because the informal sector and
the small-entrepreneur has been involved in giving out this service.
"So, there is a tremendous amount of accountability. Even a difficult
technology can be handled. Its costs can be lowered, by involvement of
the informal sector, and the benefits thus passed on to the consumer,"
says Dr Jhunjhunwala.

So what do we learn from this, if we are to spread telecom at affordable
rates to the hundreds of millions of India? Costs must be pushed down;
and local microbusinessmen must be involved in the mammoth task of
expanding the service.

"It currently costs (an investment of) Rs 30,000 to install a single
telephone line. To cover this investment, you need a revenue of at least
Rs 1000 per phone line per month. These rates are affordable to just
2-3% of the Indian population. But if you bring down the investment
needed for a phone line to Rs 10,000, then affordability of telephones
could immediately go up to 30 per cent or more of our population,"
points out Dr Jhunjhunwala.

For much of the 'nineties, Dr Jhunjhunwala has been working with
missionary zeal towards this goal. His focus has been to 'incubate'
companies of his former students and entrepreneurs -- often those
inspired by his infectious optimism -- to work to lowering the cost of a
telephone conn

Re: [GKD] RFI: Global Internet Users

[Andy Carvin]

Hi Vikas,

I's suggest you visit the CyberAtlas at .
They've got a nice collection of Internet research from a variety of
angles. I'd check out their Geographics and Demographics sections.

best of luck,
ac

*
Andy Carvin   [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
Senior Associate 
Benton Foundation 
http://www.edwebproject.org/andy
http://www.DigitalDivideNetwork.org
*
Visit my new website, Anatolian Fortnight
http://www.edwebproject.org/anatolia
*



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[GKD] RFI: Cybercafes in China

[Geoffrey Williams]

I recently came across a statistic claiming there are an estimated
78,000 Chinese cybercafes (or wangba). I am interested in learning more
about the development of this remarkably large "ecosystem".

Is anybody aware of a good English-language resource on the development
and present dynamics of the Chinese cybercafe industry?


Thank you in advance,

Geoffrey Williams




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[GKD] A Valuable Resource for Civil Society

[gatewaynews]

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, the Development Gateway
 provides valuable information
and services to civil society worldwide on development projects,
government statistics, key development topics, and policy dialogue. This
unique Internet platform brings together information, experiences, and
perspectives from governments, civil society, businesses, and donor
agencies from over 32 countries. The Development Gateway has just
introduced a new version that has made it even more focused, useful and
interactive. New features include:

*  Expanded Accessible Information on Development Activities (AIDA)
database - with over 330,000 entries.

*  More focused and in-depth pages on such varied topics as HIV/AIDS,
foreign direct investment, food security,
e-government, gender, environmental law, and indigenous peoples.

*  Additional navigational languages including French, Spanish, Russian,
and Portuguese.

*  Access tool kits, training modules, and directories geared to CSO
Capacity Building and fundraising.

*  10 Country Gateways with content managed independently by local
teams.

*  E-procurement service, which provides greater transparency and
opportunity for bidding on service contracts and purchases on projects
worldwide.

*  Improved comprehensive data and statistics that compare across
countries and time.


If you have not yet registered on the Development Gateway, we invite you
to do so now! Join a growing community of development practitioners
ready to take action by sharing knowledge, dialoguing, and building
partnerships geared to reducing poverty and promoting sustainable
development. Your continued suggestions and ideas about how the Gateway
can best be developed are critical for us, and we encourage you to work
with the portal and give us your feedback.

This is a one-time mailing. If you would like to receive regular
information on the Gateway, please register and you will receive our
free email newsletter. Please feel free to circulate this note among
your colleagues.


Thank you,

Development Gateway Civil Society team

  John Garrison   -[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Lina Abirafeh-   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Soren Gigler -   [EMAIL PROTECTED]

---

Useful links:

AIDA projects database -
http://www.developmentgateway.org/node/100647/?129

Development topics - http://www.developmentgateway.org/all-topics?130

CSO capacity-building -
http://www.developmentgateway.org/topic/?page_id=3705&131

Country Gateways - http://www.developmentgateway.org/CountryGateways?132

Procurement notices - http://www.developmentgateway.org/business/?133

Data and statistics -
http://www.developmentgateway.org/DataStatistics?134

REGISTER - http://www.developmentgateway.org/register/?135

---

***Please don't reply to this email, contact one of the team members if
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Re: [GKD] RFI: Global Internet Users

[Janice Brodman]

Vikas,

1. There are several sources of information re. people online.  NUA
 is probably the most often
quoted. Mike Jensen also provided valuable statistics in a message to
GKD some months ago.

2. Re. Cost of access, again there are many sources, usually provided by
region. Take a look at:

Africa  --  http://www3.wn.apc.org/africa/afrmain.htm
OECD -- http://www1.oecd.org/dsti/sti/it/cm/stats/newindicators.htm
Asia - varies greatly. It's best to search online by country.

There have been several messages to GKD re. costs of access for various
countries - once the messages are coded it will be easier to obtain the
information from the archives.

Janice


Janice Brodman
Director
Center for Innovative Technologies
EDC
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


Vikas Nath wrote:

> I am looking for Statistics or links to information relating to:
> 
> 1. Global Internet Users - how many people are online in the world
> 
> 2. Global Internet users who pay a fee to access the internet -
> percentage of people paying a fee to access the internet
> 
> 3. Average cost incurred by users to access the internet (region-wise if
> possible)
> 
> Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.




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