Report
This study attempts to examine and document particular sets of solutions that have emerged for the extension of telecommunications access to marginal customers in Bangladesh, under the Grameen Village Phone (VP) program. The VP program has been successful in providing access to telecommunications to over 45 percent of the villages in Bangladesh through providing microfinance to villagers to purchase a mobile phone and a GrameenPhone connection, which is then operated as a payphone, providing access to fellow villagers for a charge. This study looks at the fundamental problem of access to telecommunications, and focuses on one of the ‘solutions’ that have emerged in response to this problem, in specific that adopted by Grameen of Bangladesh.