Sunday, 21 August 2006
Village Phone (VP) is a unique idea that provides modern telecommunication services to the poor people in Bangladesh . Grameen Bank, world famous for providing collateral-free loans to the poor in rural Bangladesh , plays a vital role in Grameen Telecom's special Village Phone program. The Bank provides necessary organizational support to GTC in selecting members, collecting bills, handle day-to-day problems etc.
A Grameen Bank member, who has a good record of loan repayment and literate or having children or someone of her family who can read and write, is entitled to have a Village Phone. Village Phone Operators under the lease-financing program of the bank provide the services to the people in the adjoining area, covering both outgoing and incoming calls. Each Village Phone remains under the custody of a village pay phone operator, who is responsible for extending the services to the customers, collection of call charges according to prescribed rates and proper maintenance of the telephone set.
GTC has 27 unit offices in different parts of Bangladesh who are responsible for the VP operation in the field. The duties of field level Officers are to locate new coverage areas, help GB branch manager to select member(s). Also to provide after sales service, which is related to repairing handsets or problem shooting (hardware/software), bill related issues etc. GTC has an understanding with GrameenPhone whereby GTC purchases airtime in bulk for all the VPs in operation. GP prepares the monthly bills and send these for payment. GTC prepares individual bill in Bengali, the local language and send these bills to the corresponding Grameen Bank branches with a bill summary for a particular branch. Grameen Bank collects the VP bills along with its other dues. The concerned Grameen Bank branch pays the bill to GTC within the last date of payment.
The operator's income is derived from the differences between the air time charges paid by the customer/s and the billed amount required to be paid by the VP operator along with a flat service charge.
Objectives
 To provide easy access to telephone services, all over rural Bangladesh
To initiate a new income generating option for the villagers
To gradually bring the full potential of the Information Revolution to the doorsteps of Villagers (i.e., bringing IT to the Poor) using telephone as a new weapon against poverty since connecting rural areas to the rest of the world brings new opportunities to the rural populations.
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