Credits

Executive Summary

Introduction

1. Portrait of the Village Phone Programme

1.1 Grameen Telecom's Village Phone (VP) programme
1.2 Origin of GrameenPhone and Grameen Telecom
1.3 How the VP programme works
1.4 Why GTC and the VP are unique
1.5 The cellular phone market world-wide
1.6 The cellular phone context in Bangladesh
1.7 Context of telephone services in Bangladesh and
the Emergence of the Village Phone

2. The Village Phone's Impact on Poverty Reduction

2.1 The Village Phone operator
2.2 User analysis and village-level impacts
2.3 Financial remittances from overseas workers and phone use
2.4 Consumer surplus made available through Village Phone use
2.5 Gender analysis
2.6 Satisfaction levels of users

3. A Business Case for Rural Telecommunications

3.1 The telecommunications sector in Bangladesh
3.2 A business case for rural telecommunications
3.3 Current operators and competitive environment
3.4 Regulatory constraints

4. Telecom for Rural Development Portrait

4.1 Reviewing Grameen Telecom goals and assumptions
4.2 A Snapshot of Grameen's Village Phone programme
4.3 Key research findings related to telecommunication and rural development in Bangladesh
4.4 Gender-related findings
4.5 Recommendations toward universal telecom access in rural Bangladesh and elsewhere

Appendices

A.1 Figures
A.2 Bibliography
A.3 Related Materials
A.4 Web sites
A.5 Key People Met in Bangladesh
A.6 Abbreviations
A.7 Telecommunications Glossary
A.8 TDG Research Methodology
A.9 The Grameen Bank Family of Organizations
A.10 Investors in GrameenPhone and Hardware Providers
A.11 Consumer Surplus Calculations
A.12 Excerpt from Bayes et.al. (1999) Report
A.13 Survey Data