Subject: [NEXTEL-1] India's postmen to carry public mobile payphones

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 09:12:29 -0500

Posted to the site on 03-Jan-03

India's postmen to carry public mobile payphones

India's BSNL has launched a project that is designed to provide availability of a mobile
phone at the doorstep of every rural household. Under the scheme, a mobile phone will be
provided to a postman(Gramin Sanchar Sevak). When the postman goes to a house to deliver a
letter, he will carry the phone with him. Since a postman reaches practically every house,
the scheme will enable the phone service to be made available practically to all citizens
in his area.
Initially, the scheme is proposed to be operated on a pilot basis in 2000 post offices
covering 10,000 villages.
WLL Phones (CDMA based) for the scheme will be provided by BSNL. The phones have a display
screen on which the units will be displayed. A receipt for the transaction will be
provided by the postman. A 25% commission has been proposed for the scheme, of which 5%
will go to the post office and 20% will be paid to the postmen themselves.

Based on the results of the pilot, the scheme will be extended to more post offices in the
country. There are 1,57,000 post Offices in the country, roughly one for every 4 revenue
villages.
The number of telephones in rural India has increased from 4 million phones in 1999 to 9.6
million phones today. Village Public Telephones (VPT) have been installed in more than
five lakh villages. In the last 10 months alone, nearly 100,000 villages that did not have
a phone have been provided with a VPT.
BSNL says that the scheme is a part of the government's effort to ensure that the benefits
of the telecom revolution are made available to every citizen of rural India. The project
is called Daakiya Aaya! Mobile Laaya! (Mobile Postman Scheme)

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