Village Phone Replication Manual

Why is it such a challenge to provide telecommunications to rural areas? High initial infrastructure investment, relative low call volumes, high maintenance costs due to harsh environments, cash box collection needs, cash security costs (for coin operated phones), card availability (for prepaid airtime systems), technical illiteracy, remote locations, and high transportation costs are just some of the impediments to providing rural telecommunications access. This manual is based on the...
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Why is it such a challenge to provide telecommunications to rural areas? High initial infrastructure investment, relative low call volumes, high maintenance costs due to harsh environments, cash box collection needs, cash security costs (for coin operated phones), card availability (for prepaid airtime systems), technical illiteracy, remote locations, and high transportation costs are just some of the impediments to providing rural telecommunications access. This manual is based on the experiences of the Village Phone Programmes in Bangladesh and Uganda. In rural villages where no telecommunications services have previously existed, the programme provides cellular phones via a sustainable financing mechanism to poor entrepreneurs who use the phone to operate a business. Such has been the success that over 2,000 village phone businesses are now operating in remote villages of Uganda. This manual is a guideline for replicating the programme in a new country. It establishes a template for creating sustainable initiatives that bring telecommunications to the poor, create viable new businesses for micro-entrepreneurs, and expand the customer base for telecommunications companies.