Commercial Internet Connectivity in every village - Towards Doubling Rural GDP in India Ashok Jhunjhunwala TeNeT Group, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA2 The Dream Current Rural GDP in India = $ 130 billion For a Population= 650 million people GDP / Person = $ 200 DOUBLING Rural GDP $ 400 / Person Rural Prosperity

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA3 Agriculture Animal Husbandry Agricultural Processing Industry IT-Based Services Trade & Commerce Rural Wheel of Prosperity - The Wealth Creators

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA4 Finance Commerce Training & Information Rural Wheel of Prosperity – The Enablers Agriculture Animal Husbandry Agricultural Processing Industry IT-Based Services Trade & Commerce

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA5 Agriculture Animal Husbandry Agricultural Processing Industry IT-Based Services Trade & Commerce Enabling Finance, Commerce and Training and Information The Key Enabler is Communications

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA6 How does one connect Rural India  India has 600,000+ villages 650 million people can Rural India afford Connections?  Need Technology Sustainable Business Model Organisation which can think and act Rural

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA7 Income and Telecom Spend of Rural Indian households  75% (119 million) households can spend barely $ 3.2 per month on telecom Monthly telecom expenditure (assuming 4% income can be spent on telecom)

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA8 How does one serve people with incomes of less than a dollar a day?  Lower Connectivity cost  Aggregate demand

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA9 Lower Connectivity cost  CAPEX on telephone line in India was $ 600 plus barely two years ago required ARPU of $20 plus per month to break even affordable to barely two percent of Indian households  Innovative Technologies and better buying has reduced CAPEX to around $ 325 per line moving towards $ 200 per line enabling 50% of Indian homes to afford telecom rural connectivity cost reduced from $1500 to about $ 300 per connection

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA10 Technology to connect Rural India  BSNL’s Contribution: on the average one fibre connected rural exchange for every 150 sq km a wireless system with 10 km range at existing fibre connected exchange would cover % of villages in India  CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed by IITM and Midas Communications, Chennai provides a telephone line and Internet connection in 30 Km radius

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA11  To PSTN To Internet 35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone $ 150 per line price 1 million lines in IITM - Midas corDECT Wireless in Local Loop

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA12 Aggregate Demand  in 1987 less than 5% of urban households had telephones 7 years wait for a telephone coin-box street telephones did not work long distance charges too high even for top income families  Entrepreneur-driven telephone booths (STD PCOs) introduced night-time long distance charges reduced by a factor of 4  Today 950,000 STD PCOs covering every street of smallest town generate 25 % of total telecom income 300 million people use these PCOs

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA13  N-Logue : A Rural Service Provider aggregate demand into a kiosk using corDECT Wireless in Local Loop ISP in a box : Minnow Reliable power back-up $1000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC plus Indian language software, video conferencing software set up by a village entrepreneur on the line of STD PCOs needs only $ 60 per month to break even Organisations with Innovative Business Models

n-Logue Deployment Strategy Application & Content Providers Telephone Backbone Internet Backbone Scope: 1 –3 Talukas 25 Km radius, 2000 sq km 4 – 500 K population towns villages LSP Banks ACCESS CENTRE Connections (at least 1 in each village) Connections: Individuals Government — schools and PHCs Kiosks $ 1000 / Kiosk KIOSK OPERATOR Banks Micro Finance Organisations

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA15 What is the monthly income?  STD PCO$ 20+  Children learn typing all kinds of on-line and off-line education$ 10+  Kiosk is a photography shop$ 6 also a video parlour on weekend evenings$ 6  and browsing voice mail and video mail$ 10+  e-governance access connect to taluka Government office for services $ 4  and much more

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Word-processor in Indian Languages

Multi-lingual Office Package IITM - Chennai Kavigal

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA19 Mundi....  A 60 year old from a village near Melur had lost vision for 2 years through tie-up with Aravind eye-care hospital, vision was restored in one eye  IITM trying to develop Remote Diagnostic tools Blood Pressure, Sugar & Iron, ECG Monitor, stethoscope, Temperature at total cost of $ 200

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA20 Consultancy on Crop Disease  Top: Ladies Finger Diseased with yellow mosaic  Below : Post treatment  Savings of $ 3000  Cost of information $0:50

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA21 E- Dr Vet ?  In Attapati village, Priya’s chicken was limping  Photo sent to Veterinary college  Identified as Curled toe paralysis  Cost for process Earlier $ 4 This case $0:40

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Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA23 The Power of multi-party video communication IITM - OOPS Low bit-rate Video Conferencing (audio + video + text at 20 kbps and more)

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Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA25 Can Kiosks become Micro-banks?  TeNeT and n-Logue working with ICICI Bank Remote Bill Payment Rural ATM Micro-finance Remittance  Credit and Product Marketing is one of the biggest requirement of Rural India

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA26 Knowledge and Training  Another Driver of Rural Prosperity Information Dissemination and Knowledge Enhancement  Need a Virtual University in every District to enable this Basic Structure would Consist of a Central Hub And Knowledge Extension Centres in every village

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA27 The Extension Centre Virtual Extension of the University Located in Every Village Enhanced Village Internet Kiosk equipped with Computer(s) Internet Connection Web Camera and Multimedia Power backup Local Language Software Run by a local person who is trained to facilitate the learning process There will about 1000 such Extension Centres in Every District

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA28 To Sum Up  Doubling of Rural GDP will change India Finance, Commerce, Training & Information are key Wireless Internet can enable these  Internet in Rural Area is the key Infrastructure for a prosperous India

Constance F. & Arnold C. Pohs Symposium, Ann Arbor, USA29 N-Logue’s business model per Access Center  In a fully built-up situation per Access Center N-Logue’s Investment per Access Center: $ 60, kiosks per AC Revenue per AC ($20 per month per kiosk) $ 8000 pm common expenses (including Internet BW) $ 2000 LSP share $ 3000 n-Logue’s share $ 3000 n-Logue’ expense per AC $ 600 pm n-Logue’s gross revenue per year : $ 28,800