Funferal

Mobile phones fight poverty

I had heard similar stories previously, but it’s worth drawing attention to this story from Bytes for All:

Md. Arafatul Islam, a freelance ICT journalist from Bangladesh, narrates having recently visited a “remote village of Bangladesh named Moukhara under Natore District (in the north-west)” where he was surprised to learn of the story of Helena Begum using her cellular phone, and the deployment of ICT to battle poverty.
After fighting a lifetime of poverty inherited from her father, she received mobile phone in the year 2000. Since, she paid bill near about 3,60,000 taka(6000 US $). “So it can easily be estimated how much profit she gained from this phone,” argues Islam. “Once she was an asset-less, helpless maid servant. But now she is an owner of many valuable assets,” he argues.

Though not explicitly explained in the story, earlier versions – referencing, I think, Grameen – had explained that the phones are hired out to others. They can be cheaper to install than conventional landlines, and are more flexible.